A 


MODERN 


FISHCULTURE 


IN 


FRESH  AND  SALT  WATER 


BY- 
FRED  MATHER 

Autkor  of  "Men  I  Have  Fished  With" 

FORMERLY  ASSISTANT  TO  THE  U.  S.  FISH  COMMISSION,  LATE 

SUPERINTENDENT  OF  THE  N.  Y.  STATE  HATCHERY 

AT  COLD  SPRING  HARBOR,  LONG  ISLAND, 

WITH 

A  CHAPTER  ON    WHITEFISH   CULTURE    BY  HON.   HERSCHEL 
WHITAKER,  FISH  COMMISSIONER  OF  MICHIGAN,  AND 
A  CHAPTER  ON  THE  PIKE-PERCH  BY  JAMES 
NEVIN,  SUPERINTENDENT  OF  THE  WIS- 
CONSIN FISH  COMMISSION. 


'ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK 
FOREST  AND  STREAM  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

1900 


COPYRIGHTED  1900, 

BY 
FOREST  AND  STREAM  PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 


Why  the  Book  Was  Written 9 

A  Glance  at  Fishculture , . .       13 


SECTION  I. 

TROUT  BREEDING. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Introduction    22 

Water  Supply 23 

Pollution  of  Waters „ 24 

A  Word  About  Trou^ . ,  • .  e , 30 

How  Nature  Does  It. 31 

Eggs  of  Trout . . .  . , 34 

Marketable  Trout 35 

CHAPTER  II. 

In  the  Hatching  House. : 40 

Trough  for  Young  Salmonidse 47 

Why  Do  We  Use  Coal  Tar? 48 

Hatching   Trays 50 

Preparing  for  Hatching 52 

CHAPTER  III. 

Trout  Eggs— Distinguishing  Sex  in  Fishes 56 

Taking  Trout  Eggs 60 

Spawn  from  Wild  Trout 66 

Number  of  Eggs  in  Trout 70 

Packing  Eggs  for  Shipment 72 


239867 


2  ;Tajfc  df;  Contents, 

CHAPTER  IV.  PAGE. 

Care  of  Trout  Eggs 78 

Tools  of  the  Craft 82 

Hatching  in  Bulk 83 

CHAPTER  V. 
Care  of  Fry , ...       86 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Feeding   Fry 92 

How  Others  Feed  Fry 98 

Comments  on  the  Methods  of  Feeding 101 

Introducing  New  Blood 102 

Growth  of  Fry 103 

Automatic   Feeders 104 

Putting  Out  the  Babies 105 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Streams    107 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Ponds «...  112 

Large  Single  Ponds 115 

Ponds  in  Series e 1 18 

Drains   121 

Dams   , . „ .  123 

Screens  for    Ponds 123 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Temperatures 127 

CHAPTER  X. 

Food  for  Adult  Trout — Mussels „  128 

Soft    Clams 129 

Horse    Meat 130 

Beef  Lights  and  Maggots . 130 

Fish    131 

Haslets    132 

Natural   Foods 132 

.  How  They  Feed  in  Japan 134 

Patent    Foods 136 

What  Others  Say  About  Food. 137 


Table  of  Contents.  3 

CHAPTER  XI.  PAGE. 

Planting   Fry .,,....  138 

Stock    Heavily 141 

Time  to  Plant  Fry 141 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Transplanting  Adult  Fish 144 


SECTION  II. 

OTHER  TROUTS  AND  THE  SALMONS. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

The    Salmons . .     147 

The   Pacific  Salmons „ 147 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Other  Trouts — Brown   Trout 149 

Growth  of  Brown  Trout „ 153 

Rainbow    Trout 156 

The  Rainbow  in  England 158 

Lake  Trout 166 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Hybrid   Fish 169 

Shad  and  Alewife 169 

Shad  and  Striped  Bass 170 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Barren  Trout  and  Annual  Spawners 173 


SECTION  III. 

OTHER  SALMONID.E. 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
Grayling ;.......,..,. •   175 


4  Table  of  Contents. 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
Whitefishes  181 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
The  Whitefish  and  Its  Culture..  182 


SECTION  IV. 

OTHER  FRESHWATER  FISH  WITH  FREE  EGGS. 

CHAPTER  XX. 
Pike,  Pickerel  and  Mascalonge 191 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

Shad 192 

Shad  Fry  Across  the  Atlantic 198 

The  Bell  and  Mather  Hatching  Cone 199 

The  Chase  Jar 203 

The  McDonald  Jar 204 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
Striped  Bass  or  Rock  Fish 204 


SECTION  V. 
ADHESIVE  EGGS. 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
The  Adirondack  Frostfish 208 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Smelt 210 

Smelt  in  New  Hampshire 213 


Table  of  Contents.  5 

CHAPTER  XXV.  PAGE. 

The  Black  Basses 213 

Small-Mouth    214 

Big-Mouth    214 

Black  Bass   Culture 218 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

The  Crappies 221 

Small-Mouth    Crappie , 221 

Big-Mouth    Crappie 222 

Culture  of  Crappie 222 

Names   224 

Value  of  the  Crappie 224 

Habits 227 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 
White  Perch 228 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

The  Pike  Perch 230 

Wall-Eyed   Pike 230 

The   Sauger 232 

Hatching  Wall-Eyed  Pike  Eggs 232 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 
Cat  Fish 239 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

Carp    241 

Castrating  Carp 242 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 
The   Alewives 243 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 
Sturgeon    245 

CHAPTER  XXXIII. 
Yellow  Perch 245 


6  Table  of  Contents. 

SECTION  VI. 

PARASITES,  DISEASES  AND  ENEMIES. 

CHAPTER  XXXIV.  PAGE. 

Parasites 250 

External    Parasites 251 

Internal    Parasites 254 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 

Diseases    255 

A  Dead  Horse 257 

Fish  That  Die  After  Spawning 259 

An    Epidemic 260 

CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

Enemies    267 

Fish    -. .  268 

Reptiles  and  Batrachians 260 

A   Plant 278 

Insects  and  Their  Larvae 279 

Mammals   283 


SECTION  VII. 
SALT-WATER  FISH. 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 
Codfish   292 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 
Tomcod  294 

CHAPTER  XXXIX.  . 

Lobsters    296 

Lobsters  are  Biennial  Spawners 296 


Table  of  Contents.  7 

SECTION  VIII. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

CHAPTER  XL.  PAGE. 

Frog    Culture 301 

A   Great   Transformation 303 

Marketing  of  Frogs : 304 

CHAPTER  XLI. 
Terrapins    306 

CHAPTER  XLII. 

Number  of  Eggs  in  Different  Fish 309 

Table  of  Number  of  Eggs  in  Various  Fishes 310 

CHAPTER.  XLIII. 
The  Working  or  Blooming  of  Ponds 311 

CHAPTER  XLIV. 
Fishways   T 318 

CHAPTER  XLV. 
Fishes  Which  Guard  Their  Young 320 

CHAPTER  XLVI. 
How  Fish  Find  Their  Own  Rivers 322 

CHAPTER  XLVII. 
Dynamiting  a  Lake 324 

* 

CHAPTER  XLVIII. 
To  Measure  the  Flow  of  Water 325 


WHY    THE    BOOK    WAS   WRITTEN. 


When  I  began  fishculture  in  1868,  by  buying  a  farm 
near  Honeoye  Falls,  Monroe  County,  N.  Y.,  to  begin 
raising  trout,  there  was  little  available  literature  on 
the  subject.  The  only  book  I  knew  of  was  a  book 
entitled  "American  Fishculture,  embracing  all  the  de- 
tails of  artificial  breeding  and  rearing  of  trout,  the  cul- 
ture of  salmon,  shad  and  other  fishes,"  by  Thaddeus 
Norris.  It  was  published  that  same  year  and  gave 
what  was  then  known  of  the  subject,  and  by  its  feeble 
light  I  began  work,  but  found  that  I  had  it  all  to  learn. 

Fifteen  miles  west  of  me  a  man  was  breeding  trout, 
but  he  did  not  approve  of  what  he  considered  an  in- 
vasion of  his  particular  domain,  and  no  information 
could  be  had  in  that  quarter ;  so  I  learned  my  lesson  by 
many  expensive  experiments  and  mistakes. 

The  sale  of  eggs  and  fry  was  the  most  profitable  part 
of  trout  farming  then,  and  Mr.  A.  S.  Collins,  Dr.  J.  H. 
Slack  and  I  called  a  meeting  to  agree  upon  a  scale  of 
prices.  The  preliminary  meeting  was  held  in  New 
York  in  1870,  but  the  following  year  we  met  in  Albany 
and  organized  The  American  Fishculturists"  Associa- 
tion, with  some  twenty  members.  Papers  on  fishcul- 
ture were  read,  but  the  sale  of  eggs  and  fry  did  not 
come  up;  we  took  a  broader  course.  Massachusetts, 
New  York,  Connecticut  and  other  States  had  organ- 
ized Fish  Commissions,  and  we  adopted  a  resolution 
that  the  general  Government  should  have  something  of 
the  kind,  and  appointed  Mr.  George  Shepard  Page  a 


io     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

committee  of  one  to  go  to  Washington  and  lay  the  mat- 
ter before  Congress.  He  did  this,  after  consulting 
Prof.  Spencer  F.  Baird,  then  Assistant  Secretary  of 
the  Smithsonian  Institution.  To  avoid  all  struggle  for 
the  office,  Prof.  Baird  had  a  clause  inserted  that  the 
Commissioner  should  serve  without  salary,  and  he  was 
appointed  to  be  Fish  Commissioner  in  1871. 

Prof.  Baird  called  me  to  assist  in  the  shad  hatching 
on  the  Hudson  and  the  Connecticut  rivers,  and  in  1874 
sent  me  to  Germany  with  100,000  young  shad.  I  was 
again  sent  to  Germany  with  eggs  of  quinnat  salmon  in 
1877,  and  also  in  1879.  I  had  devised  a  refrigerating 
box  for  salmon  eggs  which  was  a  success ;  but,  like  my 
conical  apparatus  for  hatching  shad  eggs  in  bulk,  it 
was  not  patented. 

In  1880  Prof.  Baird  appointed  me  to  the  charge  of 
the  American  exhibit  of  angling  and  fishcultural  ap- 
paratus at  the  International  Fisheries  Exposition  held 
in  Berlin,  Prof.  G.  Brown  Goode  representing  the 
Commissioner. 

When  Mr.  Eugene  G.  Blackford  was  made  one  of 
the  Fish  Commissioners  of  the  State  of  New  York  he 
wanted  a  hatchery  on  Long  Island.  Seth  Green,  the 
Superintendent  of  the  Commission,  opposed  it  and  said 
there  was  no  fit  place  on  the  Island.  Mr.  Blackford 
engaged  me  to  examine  the  waters  and  to  report.  I 
reported  that  at  Cold  Spring  Harbor  was  a  fine  place 
for  both  fresh  and  salt  water  fishculture,  and  I  secured 
the  place  for  the  Commission  from  its  owner,  Mr.  John 
D.  Jones,  without  cost  to  the  State.  This  was  in  1882, 
and  that  winter  I  began  hatching  salmon  for  the  Hud- 
son, for  the  United  States  Fish  Commission  at  Roslyn, 
Long  Island,  and  Green  sent  a  man  to  put  troughs  in 
an  old  building  at  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  but  soon  re- 


Why  the  Book  Was  Written.  n 

called  him.  Mr.  Blackford  then  asked  me  to  take 
charge  of  it,  which  I  did  on  January  I,  1883,  and  four 
years  later  planned  and  built  the  present  hatchery, 
which  is  not  only  the  best,  but  is  also  the  most  impor- 
tant one  in  the  State.  There  I  learned  how  to  hatch 
over  70  per  cent,  of  the  adhesive  eggs  of  the  smelt,  and 
in  the  hatching  of  lobsters  discovered  that  they  spawn 
o;ily  once  in  two  years.  Changes  in  the  Commission 
threwr  me  out  in  1895. 

These  things  are  mentioned  merely  to  show  that  1 
have  some  right  to  opinions  on  fishculture  after  an  ex- 
perience of  thirty  years,  and,  there  being  no  modern 
book  on  general  fishculture,  outside  of  the  Government 
publications,  such  a  book  has  been  asked  for;  but  as 
trout  breeding  is  not  only  the  parent  of  fishculture,  but 
the  most  popular  form  of  it,  a  large  portion  of  the  book- 
is  devoted  to  that  branch,  and  I  hope  that  the  novice 
may  profit  by  it  and  avoid  many  failures  which  fell  to 
the  lot  of  those  who  were  the  pioneers  in  this  work. 

On  methods  where  fishculturists  differ  about  details 
I  have  given  the  opinions  of  some  of  the  best  informed 
men  in  America,  and  in  the  culture  of  whitefish  and 
wall-eyed  pike,  where  my  own  experience  has  been 
little  or  nothing,  I  have  asked  well-known  men  of  ex- 
perience to  write  these  chapters  in  order  that  the  book 
may  be  as  nearly  perfect  as  possible.  Fishculturists 
may  differ  with  me  on  some  small  matters,  but  that  is 
to  be  expected,  and  will  not  affect  the  general  result. 

The  book  has  been  many  years  in  preparation  in  the 
way  of  gathering  material,  circulars  having  been  sent 
to  fishculturists  in  jSgi  concerning  the  feeding  of  fry 
in  troughs  and  of  the  diseases  of  adult  trout,  the  an- 
swers to  which  will  be  found  under  those  heads. 

Naturally,  reference  is  frequently  made  to  my  own 


12     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

work  and  experience,  but  this  is  the  only  work  on  fish- 
culture  in  any  language  which  gives  the  experience  of 
others,  although  one  or  two  of  the  older  ones  occasion- 
ally hint  that  there  were  some  dabblers  in  the  art  at  the 
time  they  were  writing. 

As  this  book  is  intended  to  be  original,  I  have  re- 
frained during  the  past  five  years  from  looking  into 
any  fishcultural  work,  outside  the  Government  publica- 
tions, for  fear  that  I  might  unconsciously  quote  the 
author.  When  the  opinions  of  others  seemed  to  be 
needed  on  mooted  points,  they  were  written  to  and  their 
answers  are  given. 

Last,  but  not  least,  the  book  was  written  because  the 
publishers  have  been  flooded  with  demands  for  such  a 
work,  and,  outside  of  Government  publications,  there 
is  no  book  which  covers  the  whole  ground  since  Norris 
published  "American  Fishculture,"  in  1868,  now  long 
out  of  print. 

These  seem  to  be  good  and  sufficient  reasons  for  the 
existence  of  a  book  on  Modern  Fishculture. 

F.  M. 

April  20,  1899. 


A  GLANCE  AT  FISH  CULTURE. 


Hundreds,  and  perhaps  thousands  of  years  ago,  the 
Chinese  placed  twigs  in  the  water  to  catch  the  adhesive 
spawn  of  some  species  of  fish.  This  is  the  extent  of  the 
work  done  by  them,  only  this  and  nothing  more.  The 
eggs  were  placed  in  other  waters  and  left  to  hatch.  As 
ir  has  been  claimed  that  they  were  far  ahead  of  us  in 
fishculture,  I  made  inquiry  of  learned  Chinamen  at  the 
Fisheries  Exposition  in  Berlin  in  1880,  and  know  that 
their  fishculturalworkis  of  the  crudest  sort,  and  has  not 
improved.  In  the  United  States  the  work  has  made  the 
greatest  strides  and  has  been  prosecuted  on  a  scale  not 
equalled  elsewhere.  Then  come  Canada,  Germany, 
Norway,  Sweden  and  other  countries,  but  England  has 
done  nothing  in  a  public  way;  fishculture  there  is  en- 
tirely in  private  hands  and  is  confined  to  private  waters, 
largely  on  the  estates  of  wealthy  gentlemen. 

The  question  is  often  asked,  ''Will  it  pay  to  raise 
trout?"  So  much  depends  upon  local  conditions  that 
only  a  general  answer  can  be  made.  If  the  water  sup- 
ply is  large  and  not  too  warm;  if  food  can  be  had  in 
plenty  at  a  very  low  price  and  there  is  a  good  market 
near,  then  it  will  pay  to  raise  trout  for  market,  if  you  can 
do  it  on  a  sufficiently  large  scale ;  or,  if  there  are  anglers 
near  who  will  pay  for  what  they  catch,  they  form  the 
best  market.  There  are  places  where  trout  can  be 
grown  for  food  in  limited  numbers  without  expense, 
and  the  price  received  is  nearly  all  profit.  If  the  waters 
are  too  warm  for  trout  they  can  be  made  to  produce 
other  fish,  such  a's  black  bass  or  perch ;  or  if  not  these, 

13 


14     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

then  carp,  which  I  do  not  look  upon  with  favor.  All 
these  subjects  will  be  treated  at  length  under  their  re- 
spective heads. 

Fishculture — and  I  always  prefer  this  word  to  the 
Latin,  pisciculture,  as  I  do  the  good  English  word  eggs 
to  ova — is  a  paying  investment  for  the  government  and 
for  such  States  as  have  suitable  waters.  If  New  York 
had  not  hatched  shad  in  the  Hudson  each  year  since 
1869  there  would  be  few  or  none  there  now.  The  in- 
crease of  population,  and  above  all  the  facilities  for 
transportation,  are  so  great  that  the  drain  on  the  river 
would  be  more  than  it  could  stand.  North  River, 
another  name  for  the  Hudson,  shad  are  now  sent  to  Chi- 
cago, and  beyond,  and  the  number  of  fishermen  has  in- 
creased with  the  demand  for  shad.  This  is  why  shad 
do  not  become  cheaper  when  so  many  more  millions  are 
hatched.  They  seldom  sell  for  less  than  $10  per  hun- 
dred at  the  nets.  As  proof  of  the  assertion  that  shad 
would  be  nearly  extinct  in  the  Hudson  but  for  artificial 
hatching,  I  will  cite  the  case  of  the  Connecticut  River, 
once  so  famous  for  the  number  as  well  as  the  quality  of 
its  shad.  Years  ago  there  was  an  arrangement  to  share 
the  expense  0*  shad  hatching  by  the  States  of  Massachu- 
setts and  Connecticut,  and  they  turned  out  many  fish. 
Then  the  commissioners  quarreled;  the  men  of  Mas- 
sachusetts complained  that  they  did  not  get  their  share 
of  the  shad,  because  the  pounds  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  took  the  bulk  of  the  fish.  The  hatching  stopped 
some  twenty  years  ago,  and  now  the  Connecticut  fur- 
nishes very  few  shad,  so  few  that  it  does  not  pay  to 
fish  for  them  above  the  mouth  of  the  river.  There 
was  a  similar  dispute  about  the  salmon  in  the  Rhine; 
Germany  hatched  them  and  Holland  caught  them, 
reaping  the  benefit  without  any  expense. 


A  Glance  at  Fishculture.  15 

Shad  only  come  to  the  rivers  to  breed.  Those  caught 
for  food  when  ripe  are  lost  for  that  purpose  unless  the 
fishculturist  saver  them,  and  he  hatches  millions  which 
would  otherwise  be  lost. 

Again  the  Connecticut  River.  It  was  once  a  famous 
salmon  river.  My  grandfather  has  told  me  of  seeing 
his  father,  Joseph  Mather,  who  rah  a  ferry  from  Lyme 
to  Saybrook,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  over  125  years 
ago,  take  so  many  salmon  in  his  net  that  he  could  not 
land  them  for  fear  of  tearing  the  net,  and  part  had  to 
be  released.  In  the  late  70*3  the  salmon  had  not  been 
seen  in  the  river  for  over  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and 
the  States  above  mentioned,  in  connection  with  Ver- 
mont, New  Hampshire  and  the  United  States,  shared 
the  expense  of  restocking  the  river  with  salmon  fry 
from  the  Penobscot.  The  salmon  fishery  was  restored 
and  in  a  few  years  Connecticut  salmon  were  common 
in  the  markets  of  New  York,  Boston  and  other  cities. 
Then  came  the  old  trouble  about  the  nets  at  the  mouth 
of  the  river  and  the  stocking  ceased.  The  run  of  fish 
kept  up  for  two  or  three  years  afterward  and  Con- 
necticut salmon  were  no  longer  caught. 

It  is  difficult  to  tell  the  results  of  fishculture  in  waters 
where  the  fish  which  are  bred  have  always  existed,  but 
when  a  species  is  placed  in  water  where  it  is  not  a  na- 
tive, and  thrives  there,  the  fishculturist  can  point  to  it 
with  pride.  Shad  and  striped  bass  were  unknown  on 
the  Pacific  coast  until  planted  there  over  twenty  years 
ago,  and  now  they  are  not  only  plenty  in  the  Sacra- 
mento River,  where  the  plants  were  made,  but  shad 
have  strayed  north  and  stocked  waters  as  high  up  as 
Puget  Sound.  Not  only  that,  but  Mr.  Blackford  has 
seen  shad  in  California  which  weighed  as  high  as  16 
pounds,  while  one  of  half  that  size  is  a  monster  on  the 


1 6     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Waicr. 

Atlantic  coast.  Striped  bass  are  also  common  there. 
The  salmon  and  the  brown  trout  have  been  introduced 
into  Australia,  the  rainbow  trout  into  England  and  Ger- 
many with  marked  success,  and  if  more  examples  are 
required  I  would  refer  to  the  introduction  of  the  brown 
trout  of  Europe  into  America ;  but  these  are  enough  to 
show  that  the  so-called  artificial  breeding  of  fish  is  a 
valuable  industry  if  carried  on  intelligently. 

The  broad,  unqualified  assertion  that  "an  acre  of 
water  is  more  valuable  than  an  acre  of  land,"  started  by 
some  enthusiastic  fishculturist  years  ago,  is  liable  to 
hurt  the  cause  of  fishculture  if  used  seriously.  There 
can  be  no  such  comparison.  Land  and  water  a're  val- 
uable for  what  they  will  produce ;  some  land  is  worth- 
less and  so  is  some  water,  yet  we  must  admit  that  the 
latter  might  produce  more  food  than  it  does,  for  out- 
side of  Great  Salt  Lake  I  do  not  know  of  any  American 
waters,  unless  alkaline  ones,  which  will  not  produce 
food  of  some  kind  fit  for  the  use  of  man,  while  I  do 
know  of  barren  sands  that  would  not  grow  an  ounce  of 
food.  The  fact  is  that  some  acres  of  water  are  worth 
more  than  some  acres  of  land,  and  vice  versa.  There  is 
no  fixed  rule  or  ratio  of  values.  I  know  of  a  spot  where 
springs  well  up  on  about  40  acres  of  swamp  land  within 
as  many  miles  of  New  York  City,  and  make  a  splendid 
trout  stream,  which  I  would  prefer  to  an  equal  amount 
of  the  best  farming  land  in  the  State ;  but  that  is  an  ex- 
ception. The  Great  Lakes  do  not  yield  as  valuable  prod- 
ucts as  an  equal  area  of  the  best  farming  land.  But  then 
the  Great  Lakes  are  in  a  state  of  nature,  the  fishes  in 
them  are  not  selected,  and  worthless  species  prey  upon 
the  more  valuable  ones.  Perhaps  that's  not  a  fair  com- 
parison, and  I  wish  to  be  fair.  Take  the  mill-pond  of  20 
acres,  Here  the  water  may  be  drawn  off  and  in  some 


A  Glance  at  FishcultuM.  1 7 

cases  the  worthless  species  can  be  killed.  Then  it  is  a 
question  of  temperature,  location  and  other  things 
which  will  determine  its  value  with  an  equal  area  of 
land.  There  is  no  fixed  value  for  either  land  or  water, 
therefore  the  assertion  quoted*is  absurd  and  misleading. 
The  rearing  of  some  fishes  is  attended  with  more  care 
than  that  of  others ;  for  instance,  the  trout  may  be  raised 
in  several  different  ways  involving  more  or  less  care  and 
expense  in  the  preparation  of  ponds,  hatching  appa- 
ratus, etc.,  according  to  the  system  adopted,  which  is  de- 
pendent upon  the  amount  of  flow,  extent  of  ponds  and 
the  inclination  of  the  owner — and  here  let  me  say  that  in 
the  culture  of  fishes  there  are  none  which  require  as 
much  care  as  the  trout.  It  is  very  particular  about  the 
temperature  in  which  it  will  live,  anything  above  75  de- 
grees Fahrenheit,  except  in  swiftly  running  water,  be- 
ing fatal ;  therefore  its  culture  is  prohibited  in  all  waters 
where  the  bottom  temperature  rises  above  that  figure. 
Few  fish  eggs  are  easier  to  care  for  and  hatch  than  those 
of  the  trout,  coming  as  they  do  from  October  to  March, 
as  any  running  stream  is  then  cold  enough,  even  though 
its  summer  temperature  would  be  fatal  to  the  young 
fish,  and  the  eggs  will  endure  any  degree  of  cold  short 
of  freezing  solid,  even  if  surrounded  by  ice.  As  an  off- 
set to  this,  the  young  are  delicate  if  kept  in  confined 
quarters,  as  they  are  likely  to  be  if  hatched  in  great 
numbers,  and  not  turned  into  a  stream  or  pond  well  sup- 
plied with  natural  food,  but  kept  to  be  fed  by  hand ;  and 
although  90  per  cent,  of  the  eggs  may  easily  be  hatched 
and  the  greater  portion  of  them  may  live  during  the 
embryonic  period  in  which  they  are  subsisting  upon  the 
yolk  sac,  which  remains  attached  to  the  abdomen  for  a 
period  of  forty  to  fifty  days  before  they  need  food,  they 
are  then  apt,  as  before  stated,  to  die  very  rapidly,  and  if 


i8     Modern  Pishculturetin  Fresh  and  Salt  WaieY. 

75  or  80  per  cent,  of  the  young  are  kept  through  the 
month  of  May,  it  is,  in  my  opinion,  a  good  average,  and 
much  more  than  I  did  in  my  first  three  years  of  trout 
culture.  In  those  days  there  was  no  one  to  give  the  re- 
sults of  experience,  at  least  none  who  would  do  so,  and 
we  had  to  blunder  through  and  profit  the  next  season  by 
the  dearly-bought  experience  of  the  last.  A  young  trout 
which  is  safely  brought  through  the  month  of  May  has 
passed  all  infantile  dangers  and  is  almost  as  good  as 
raised. 

The  culture  of  the  carnivorous  fishes  is  attended  with 
more  dangers  than  that  of  others,  as  in  addition  to  the 
number  of  enemies  they  will  devour  their  own  kind ; 
and  the  trout  is  a  truly  carnivorous  fish,  notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  it  has  been  starved  into  eating  corn 
bread  and  other  vegetarian  diet.  This  habit  necessi- 
tates the  keeping  of  the  different  sizes  apart,  if  small 
ponds  are  used,  and  increases  the  care  and  trouble. 

Of  our  other  carnivorous,  or  perhaps  piscivorous 
fishes,  there  are  few  or  none  which  are  worth  the  atten- 
tion of  the  farmer,  or  which  could  be  made  a  source  of 
much  food  or  any  profit.  Waters  are  stocked  with  the 
black  bass  for  the  sport  of  catching  them ;  but  they  pro- 
duce but  little  food,  while  the  pike  or  pickerel  (Esox) 
which  are  caught  for  sport  are  so  fearfully  destructive 
that  anglers  protest  against  their  introduction  into  any 
waters  not  inhabited  by  them.  In  order  to  bring  the 
habits  of  fishes  and  their  different  characters  more  plain- 
ly before  the  minds  of  those  who  have  never  studied 
them  closely,  they  might  be  compared,  in  respect  to  their 
food,  to  certain  well-known  quadrupeds,  in  a  general 
sort  of  way,  first  stating  that  there  are  no  fishes  which 
are  so  strictly  vegetarians  as  some  mammals  are.  We 
may  then  compare  the  pike,  bass,  and  perch  to  the  car- 


A  Glance  at  Fishculture.  ig 

hivorous  cats,  as  the  pike  eats  nothing  but  fish,  while 
the  other  two  vary  their  diet  with  an  occasional  worm 
or  fly;  the  trout,  when  wild,  may  be  also  classed  with 
those  fishes,  but  under  domestication  its  appetite,  like 
that  of  the  domestic  dog,  can  be  changed  into  one  nearly 
resembling  that  of  the  omnivorous  hog.  This,  however, 
requires  to  be  received  with  some  caution,  as,  .although 
trout  have  been  kept  on  corn  bread  and  "dog  biscuit," 
and  are  reported,  by  apparently  good  authority,  as  thriv- 
ing upon  that  diet,  yet  it  remains  to  be  proved  that  they 
will  breed  freely  under  those  conditions.  If  so,  then, 
and  not  until  then,  it  can  be  claimed  that  trout  have  been 
turned  into  vegetarians.  Still  this  fish  is  not  so  much  of 
a  fish  eater  as  those  named  above  until  it  reaches  a 
weight  of  over  a  pound,  when  it  needs  a  more  sub- 
stantial meal  than  flies  and  worms,  although  it  still  takes 
them  as  entrees. 

Perhaps  those  of  our  native  fishes  which  more  nearly 
resemble  the  herbivora — at  least  in  their  gregarious 
habits,  if  not  entirely  in  diet — are  included  in  the  fami- 
lies known  to  scientists  as  the  Cyprinidce  and  Catostom- 
idce,  which  may  be  said  to  include  all  the  toothless 
fishes  of  our  fresh  waters  which  have  only  one  dorsal 
fin,  composed  entirely  of  soft  rays,  excepting  the  her- 
ring-like forms.  The  largest  of  these  are  the  sucker 
tribes,  which,  in  the  tributaries  of  the  Mississippi,  often 
reach  a  weight  of  eight  to  ten  pounds  in  the  species  lo- 
cally known  as  "buffalo"  and  "red  horse."  But  they 
are  not  worth  raising,  for  the  carp  is  in  the  sahie  class, 
is  a  better  table  fish  and  is  easily  raised,  but  it  is  of  little 
value  in  the  cool  waters  of  the  North  and  will  be  con- 
sidered later. 

Fishes  are  as  susceptible  to  the  influences  of  domesti- 
cation as  any  other  animals,  and  perhaps  our  brook  trout 


20     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

may  a  century  from  this  begin  to  show  changes  in  favor 
of  early  maturity,  hardihood,  and  freedom  from  early 
death  by  the  continued  breeding  from  the  strongest,  if 
our  breeders  will  not  resort  to  the  practice  of  introduc- 
ing wild  stock  into  their  ponds,  thereby  neutralizing 
all  their  efforts  in  this  direction.  Mr.  Stone  talks  of 
"Domesticated  Trout,"  and  why  not  ?  The  carp  intro- 
duced from  Germany  shows  what  can  be  done  in  this 
line.  It  is  a  great  improvement  over  the  English  carp. 
The  Germans  produced  a  quick-growing  fish,  and  by 
selection  bred  the  scales  off  from  it. 

The  carp  is  not  the  only  fish  which  shows  signs  of  im- 
provement under  domestication.  The  Chinese  and  Ja- 
panese have  for  centuries  bred  the  gold  fish  for  orna- 
mental purposes,  and  have  produced  results  that  are 
singular  in  their  "telescope  fish,"  that  have  projecting 
eyes  which  seem  almost  to  be  placed  on  stalks;  some 
of  these  which  were  in  the  writer's  possession  had  eyes 
fully  a  quarter  of  an  inch  out  from  the  head,  a  position 
in  which  they  would  be  so  liable  to  injury  in  a  state  of 
nature  that  the  fish  could  not  live.  Another  form  is 
with  the  long,  drooping,  soft  tail  of  the  kingio,  which 
was  loaned  by  Mr.  Gill,  of  Baltimore,  to  the  old  New 
York  Aquarium,  and  for  which  he  was  said  to  have  re- 
fused $2,000. 

Such  abnormal  fishes  are  produced  by  continued  se- 
lection, in  the  same  manner  as  our  improved  breeds  of 
cattle  are ;  but  American  fishculturists  have  never  paid 
any  attention  to  the  ornamental  part  of  their  business, 
being  engaged  in  trying  to  produce  food  fishes,  or  those 
which  may  be  called  "angler's  fishes,"  all  of  which  are 
of  more  or  less  value  for  the  table. 

In  a  private  way  there  are  a  few  who  have  made  trout 
culture  for  market  moderately  profitable,  and  these  have 


A  Glance  at  Fishculture.  2i 

had  exceptional  facilities  in  the  manner  of  a  supply  of 
water  and  cheap  and  abundant  food  for  them ;  yet  there 
is  a  chance,  even  with  the  smallest  of  streams,  of  so  cul- 
tivating the  water,  which  is  now  a  waste  so  far  as  the 
production  of  food  is  concerned,  that  it  will  at  least  fur- 
nish the  family  table  with  a  welcome  variety  of  whole- 
some food  at  a  small  outlay.  The  fact  has  been  demon- 
strated that  intelligent  fishculture  is  one  of  our  indus- 
tries that  those  who  have  facilities  for  it  are  unwise  to 
neglect. 


SECTION  i. 


TROUT  BREEDING. 

'"  *      •  -- 

CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

The  breeding  of  trout  was  the  beginning  of  fishcul- 
ture,  and  this  was  first  practised  in  1741  by  Stephan 
Ludwig  Jacobi,  a  lieutenant  in  the  German  Army,  liv- 
ing at  Hoenhausen,  a  small  town  in  Westphalia.  The 
claim  that  the  monk,  Dom  Pinchon,  bred  trout  in  the 
fifteenth  century  is  not  well  supported.  Jacobi  reported 
his  discovery  some  years  after  to  the  great  naturalist, 
Buffon,  and  the  British  Government  granted  him  a  pen- 
sion. In  1837  Mr.  John  Shaw,  of  Drumlaurig,  hatched 
salmon  from  eggs  taken  by  hand  in  Great  Britain.  The 
first  work  of  the  kind  in  America  was  done  by  Dr.  Theo- 
datus  Garlick  and  his  partner,  Prof.  Ackley,  in  1853 ; 
but  at  that  time  it  was  regarded  as  merely  a  curious  ex- 
periment, having  no  bearing  on  the  question  of  pro- 
ducing food.  Public  attention  was  first  called  to  fishcul- 
ture  in  America  in  1856  by  an  "act  of  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature  appointing  three  commissioners  to  report 
such  facts  concerning  the  artificial  propagation  of  fish  as 
might  tend  to  show  the  practicability  and  expediency  of 
introducing  the  same  into  the  Commonwealth  under  the 

protection  of  law.    In  1859  Mr.  Stephen  H.  Ainsworth, 

22 


Trout  Breeding.  2$ 

of  West  Bloomfield,  N.  Y.,  bred  trout  successfully  in  a 
stream  which  in  a  dry  time  was  hardly  larger  than  a  lead 
pencil ,  but  his  pond  was  beneath  his  hatchery  and  was 
completely  shaded.  Naturally  he  bred  but  few  trout, 
but  he  demonstrated  what  could  be  done.  Then  Green, 
Stone,  myself  and  others  started  at  the  work. 


WATER   SUPPLY. 

Upon  the  volume  and  temperature  of  the  water  de- 
pends the  success  of  the  venture  in  trout  breeding.  That 
taken  from  near  the  fountain-head  is  best  for  hatching 
purposes  if  it  be  well  aerated  by  falling  a  short  distance 
through  the  air,  or  spread  out  into  a  thin  sheet  as  it  en- 
ters the  trough.  By  taking  it  from  a  pool,  or  reservoir, 
near  the  springs,  we  get  less  sediment  and  more  even 
temperatures  and  are  not  disturbed  by  rains  or  thaws ; 
and  by  taking  from  a  reservoir  it  has  a  chance  to  get 
colder  in  winter  and  so  retard  the  hatching,  an  ad- 
vantage which  we  will  consider  under  the  head  of  hatch- 
ing. A  certain  amount  of  fall  to  the  water  into  the 
hatching  house  is  a  necessity,  and  it  should  be  at  least 
ten  inches ;  while  a  foot  is  needed  between  ponds,  if  they 
are  small  and  in  a  series.  Select  your  water  supply  in 
the  driest  time  of  the  year  and  note  its  temperature  at 
2  P.  M.  on  the  warmest  day.  See  that  no  freshet  can 
sweep  down  a  ravine  to  clog  your  screens  and  carry  off 
the  results  of  your  labor.  A  sudden  thaw  with  rain  on 
a  frozen  ground  may  destroy  the  work  of  years. 

Above  all  do  not  dam  a  ravine  and  make  your  ponds 
in  the  bottom  of  it.  This  is  the  first  plan  which  sug- 
gests itself  to  the  man  who  has  given  no  thought  to  the 
subject.  There  is  always  some  fall  in  a  ravine,  and  if 


24     Modern  Pishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

you  put  a  dam  across  it,  tap  it  at  one  side  and  make  the 
ponds  on  that  side,  well  guarded  by  a  ditch,  so  that  no 
surface  water  can  get  into  the  ponds  or  increase  their 
flow. 

As  the  "shells"  of  fish  eggs  do  not  contain  lime,  soft 
water  is  as  good  as  hard  for  their  culture. 


THE  POLLUTION  OF  WATERS. 

Ordinary  house  sewage  does  not  seem  to  affect,  fish 
either  in  health  or  flavor.  The  Hudson  River  is  one 
vast  sewer  for  such  large  cities  as  Troy,  Albany,  Hud- 
son, Poughkeepsie,  Newburg,  Sing  Sing,  Peekskill, 
Yonkers  an$  New  York,  as  well  as  of  hundreds  of 
smaller  places,  yet  the  shad  and  salmon  run  to  the  dam 
at  Troy  and  are  as  healthy  and  fine  flavored  there  as 
those  caught  below.  It  is  difficult  to  poison  a  great  river 
like  the  Hudson.  I  don't  mean  to  say  that  these  fish 
would  live  in  the  sewers ;  far  from  it ;  but  the  fact  is  that 
the  sewage  comes  in  at  the  sides  of  the  river,  is  soon  di- 
luted, precipitated  and  rendered  harmless.  This  is  not 
the  case  with  many  chemicals,  nor  with  sawdust. 

Sawdust.  There  is  a  popular  idea  that  sawdust  kills 
off  the  trout  in  a  stream  by  clogging  the  gills  of  the  fish. 
Such  a  thing  might  have  happened,  but  a  trout  is  not 
killed  by  sand  in  its  gills.  The  great  harm  that  saw- 
dust does  is  by  smothering  the  spawning  beds,  more  or 
less,  and  in  impregnating  the  water  with  turpentine 
from  pine  and  tannin  from  oak,  which  destroy  the  trout 
while  in  the  egg.  See  the  chapter  on  hatching  troughs 
and  the  impossibility  of  hatching  trout  in  troughs  of 
raw,  new  wood. 

Chemicals  of  many  kinds  will  kill  any  and  all  fish  if 


Trout  Breeding.  25 

they  run  into  them.  Lime  from  paper  mills,  the  chlo- 
ride, I  believe,  used  for  bleaching,  is  deadly  on  the  side 
of  the  river  in  which  it  flows.  The  paper  mills  which 
make  their  stock  from  wood  pulp  do  not  use  one-tenth 
the  lime  for  bleaching  which  the  other  mills  require. 

The  Massachusetts  Commissioners  of  Fisheries,  in 
their  report  for  1866,  say : 

"To  state  in  a  comprehensive  way  what  is  the  effect 
of  certain  impurities  in  water,  is  by  no  means  easy. 
Even  supposing  the  mixtures  thus  made  (refuse  from 
factories)  to  be  constant  and  stable  (which  they  are  not), 
their  effect  upon  different  animal  and  vegetable  organ- 
isms would  be  quite  variable.  Chemical  analysis  is  no 
such  great  helper  in  the  difficulty  as  might  be  supposed. 
A  science  that  is  still  so  imperfect  as  to  call  starch  and 
sugar  the  same  thing,  and  that  cannot  tell  a  good  wine 
from  bad,  is  hardly  a  reliable  support  in  testing  the  fine 
questions  of  animal  likes  and  dislikes.  .  .  .  The 
sole  way,  therefore,  of  arriving  at  any  result  is,  to  make 
a  great  number  of  experiments  upon  the  animals,  and 
under  the  conditions  required.  To  make  such  a  series 
of  experiments  did  not  lie  within  the  power  of  the  Com- 
missioners, but,  to  establish  some  main  facts,  a  few  cases 
were  tested,  as  follows  : 

EXPERIMENT  A.  A  young  bream  (Pomotis  vulgaris) 
put  in  a  glass  of  water,  to  which  1-200  in  bulk  of  sul- 
phuric acid  was  added,  died  in  four  minutes. 

EXPERIMENT  B.  The  same  species,  in  a  similar  glass 
of  water,  to  which  i-ioo  in  bulk  of  concentrated  solu- 
tion of  soap  was  added,  died  in  two  minutes. 

EXPERIMENT  C.  A  young  shiner  (Leuciscus  cry  so- 
leucas)  in  a  glass  of  water,  to  which  1-500  in  bulk  of 
chloride  of  lime  was  added,  was  distressed,  but  did  not 
die  for  seven  minutes. 


26     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

EXPERIMENT  D.  A  full  grown  shad  (Alosa  pr&sta- 
bilis)  in  a  large  tub  of  water,  to  which  1-400  in  bulk  of 
sulphuric  acid  was  added,  died  almost  immediately. 

EXPERIMENT  E.  A  similar  fish,  in  a  tub  of  water,  to 
which  1-200  of  concentrated  solution  of  soap  was  added, 
became  uneasy,  and  turned  several  times  on  its  side,  but 
at  the  end  of  five  minutes  was  still  alive  and  tolerably 
active.  Compare  the  effect  of  soap  on  the  bream. 

EXPERIMENT  F.  A  similar  fish,  in  a  tub  of  water,  to 
which  i -200  in  bulk  of  dry  chloride  of  lime  was  added, 
became  violently  excited,  then  exhausted,  and  at  the  end 
of  three  minutes  from  the  beginning,  died  from  a  rup- 
ture of  the  gill  vessels. 

"In  these  experiments  large  proportions  of  the  pois< 
ons  were  used,  in  order  to  show  plainly  the  effect  ol: 
each.  What  the  effects  would  have  been  on  salmon  we 
cannot  infer,  except  that  we  know,  in  general,  that  the 
trouts  are  more  fastidious  than  fish  like  the  shad,  and 
are  more  easily  destroyed.  A  shovelful  of  powdered 
quicklime  thrown  on  the  water  over  a  shoal  of  trout, 
will  bring  a  number  of  them  dead  to  the  surface  within 
ten  minutes.  Many  trout  brooks  in  England  have  been 
depopulated  by  drains  from  copper  mines  emptying  into 
them;  the  insoluble  sulphurets  sink  to  the  bottom  of 
the  brook,  where  they  decompose,  giving  off  free  sul- 
phuric acid,  which  is  very  destructive.  Sawdust  is  no- 
toriously pernicious.  Its  effect  is  mechanical,  by  get- 
ting into  the  gills  and  producing  suffocation.  Lime  is 
as  deadly  to  salmon  as  to  trout ;  gas-works,  too,  are  bad, 
and  the  arseniates  thrown  out  from  dye-houses  are  high- 
ly injurious.  City  sewage,  unless  in  great  quantities, 
will  not  drive  them  away,  as  is  shown  by  salmon  going 
up  the  Dee,  and  past  the  city  of  Chester,  whose  sewers 
empty  into  the  river.  The  effect  of  gas-works  depends, 


Trout  Breeding.  27 

perhaps,  on  the  details  of  the  manufacture.  In  great 
cities,  where  gas  is  made  in  large  quantities,  the  sec- 
ondary products  of  the  distillation,  such  as  tar,  coal  oils, 
ammonia,  etc.,  are  saved  and  sold.  But  in  small  towns 
these  products  are  allowed  to  run  off  in  a  drain,  and  are 
then  very  deleterious  to  fish.  The  Lawrence  gas-house 
is  reputed  to  have  destroyed  a  shad  fishery  hard  by,  and 
that  opposite  Holyoke  is  said  to  have  driven  the  small 
fish  from  the  neighborhood.  Whereas  the  dock  into 
which  empties  the  drain  of  the  Boston  north-end  gas- 
works, is  noted  as  a  good  place  to  catch  smelts  (Os- 
merus  viridescens)/' 

The  Commissioners  then,  thirty-three  years  ago,  be- 
lieved in  the  theory  that  the  effect  of  sawdust  on  trout  is 
mechanical,  a  belief  which  I  do  not  share.  In  the  re- 
port of  the  Ohio  Fish  Commission  for  1873  they  say : 

"Deleterious  substances  prevent  the  increase  of  fishes. 
The  habit  of  throwing  all  the  offal  and  waste  material 
from  factories  into  the  river,  not  only  prevents  the  in- 
crease, but  actually  destroys  myriads  of  fishes  annually. 
The  waste  discharged  into  the -river  from  distilleries 
often  destroys  millions  of  fish;  the  waste  discharges 
from  paper  mills  consist  of  lime  and  other  alkalies; 
from  woolen  mills  the  waste  is  mostly  refuse  dye  stuffs, 
containing  acids  in  various  chemical  combinations; 
from  tanneries,  acids,  etc.  The  gas  tar  from  gas  estab- 
lishments, while  not  absolutely  poisonous,  most  ef- 
fectually destroys  the  flavor  of  the  fish  and  unfits  them 
for  table  use.  The  gas  works  in  the  city  of  Colurribus 
discharges  the  gas  tar  into  the  Scioto.  What  effect  this 
has  up  on  'scale'  fish  we  do  not  know,  not  having  heard 
any  complaint  from  the  fishermen.  During  the  winter 
of  1872-73,  a  large  quantity  of  cat-fish  were  observed 
stranded  on  the  'riffles'  several  miles  south  of  the  city. 


28     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

A  Mr.  Fisher  picked  up  a  'two-horse  load'  of  them  and 
brought  them  into  the  city,  and  sold  them  within  a  very 
few  hours.  When  cooked  and  brought  upon  the  table 
they  were  found  to  be  exceedingly  unpalatable,  tasting 
and  smelling  as  though  they  had  been  thoroughly  sat- 
urated with  coal  tar." 

Under  the  head  of  " Sewerage  Reform''  the  New 
York  Tribune  lately  said  : 

"We  have  had  occasion  now  and  then  to  comment 
upon  and  to  commend  the  action  of  the  Connecticut 
courts  in  awarding  damages  to  persons  who  complained 
that  their  use  of  brooks  and  rivers  had  been  prevented 
or  impaired  by  the  pollution  of  those  streams  with  sew- 
age. Sentences  have  been  passed,  if  we  remember  cor- 
rectly, upon  several  individuals  or  corporations,  and 
upon  at  least  one  municipality,  for  such  pollution,  and 
various  other  concerns  and  places  have  been  impelled 
to  mend  their  ways.  All  this  was,  as  we  have  hitherto 
said,  exceedingly  gratifying.  We  believe  that  a  similar 
spirit  of  self-defence  on  the  part  of  aggrieved  persons 
the  land  over  would  wrork  a  veritable  revolution  in  be- 
half of  health  and  cleanliness. 

"But  Connecticut  has  not  been  content  with  that.  A 
State  Commission  was  appointed  to  investigate  the  sub- 
ject and  report  thereon.  It  has  done  so,  and  its  report 
is  instructive  and  suggestive.  It  states  that  all  the  towns 
and  cities  of  the  State  which  have  sewer  systems,  ex- 
cepting four  or  five,  discharge  their  sewage  into  run- 
ning streams  or  tidal  harbors.  The  results  are  that  the 
water  is  contaminated,  the  health  of  the  people  endan- 
gered, fish  are  destroyed,  ice  is  made  unfit  for  use, 
streams  are  made  unsightly,  and  serious  loss  is  inflicted 
upon  the  owners  of  riparian  lands.  All  that  was  known 
pretty  well  before.  It  has  been  urged  by  the  Tribune 


Trout  Breeding.  29 

for.  years,  in  season  and  out  of  season.  It  is,  however, 
gratifying  to  have  it  formally  and  in  detail  affirmed  by 
official  authority. 

"The  Commission  does  more  than  merely  to  report. 
It  makes  recommendations.  One  of  these  is  that  the 
pouring  of  foul  sewage  into  streams  be  absolutely  for- 
bidden by  law,  and  another  is  that  all  cities  and  towns 
be  similarly  compelled  to  purify  their  sewage,  in  accord- 
ance with  State  rules  and  to  a  State  standard.  Those 
are  both  perfectly  reasonable  and  sound,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  they  will  speedily  be  enacted  into  law.  Then,  we 
have  no  doubt,  the  law  will  be  enforced,  as  they  have  a 
habit  of  doing  in  Connecticut,  and  what  is  now  an  abom- 
inable nuisance  will  be  abated. 

"The  same  evils  exist  elsewhere.  They  are  due  to  the 
same  causes.  They  ought  to  be  dealt  with  in  the  same 
way.  The  same  law  that  governs  Piper's  Brook  should 
be  applied  to  the  Passaic  River  and  to  every  river  and 
brook  in  the  land.  There  is  no  more  precious  gift  of 
nature  than  pure  water.  It  is  abundantly  given  in  this 
part  of  the  world  in  springs  and  streams.  It  is  intol- 
erable that  men  should  defile  and  destroy  it  simply 
through  laziness  or  shiftlessness  or  through  pecuniary 
meanness.  Every  community  and  every  individual  es- 
tablishment should  be  compelled  to  dispose  of  its  un- 
clean refuse  in  a  manner  not  injurious  to  its  neighbors. 
Connecticut  is  proceeding  on  exactly  the  right  lines.  It 
would  be  a  blessed  good  thing  if  every  other  State  in  the 
Union  would  follow  her  example." 

The  time  has  come  when  manufacturers,  whether  of 
lumber,  paper,  coal-oil  or  other  things  which  are  in- 
jurious to  fish,  should  be  required  to  take  care  of  their 
refuse.  It  may  cost  them  something,  but  that  is  no  con- 
cern of  ours,  who  believe  that  the  rights  of  the  public 


30     Modern  Fishcultiire  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

should  be  considered  before  the  convenience  of  a  few 
manufacturers. 

A  WORD  ABOUT  TROUT. 

As  there  are  "many  men  of  many  minds/'  so  there  are 
many  trouts  of  many  kinds,  and  I  use  the  word  "trouts" 
in  the  plural  because  they  are  entitled  to  be  so  spoken  of. 
On  the  Atlantic  coast  of  America  we  have  the  native 
brook  and  lake  trouts  and  the  introduced  brown  trout 
of  Europe,  the  rainbow  trout  and  the  "cut-throat  trout" 
from  the  West,  the  latter  so  called  from  a  red  mark  on 
its  throat ;  while  on  the  Pacific  slope  there  is  a  number  of 
trouts :  two  species  discovered  by  Admiral  Beardslee 
last  year — but  I  might  get  in  a  muddle  if  I,  tried  to  name 
them  all. 

To  begin  with,  our  brook  and  lake  trout,  the  lat- 
ter miscalled  "salmon  trout,"  are  not  trout  at  all.  Some 
twenty  years  or  more  ago  when  we  sent  our  revered 
brook  trout  to  England,  our  American  anglers  were  in- 
dignant at  being  told  thatjt  was  not  a  trout  but  a  char. 
They  had  never  heard  of  a  char  and  within  a  year  or  so 
afterward,  when  they  had  learned  that  a  char  was  a 
higher  form  of  trout,  with  finer  scales  and  requiring 
colder  water,  they  cooled  down  and  accepted  the  dictum 
of  the  anglers  and  scientists  who  live  on  the  other  side 
of  the  great  damp  spot. 

The  fact  is  that  the  true  trouts  have  the  dentition  of 
the  salmon  and  comparatively  coarse  scales.  The  brown 
trout,  rainbow  trout,  and  probably  all  the  black-spotted 
trout  of  the  Pacific  coast  are  true  trouts,  and  are  in- 
cluded in  the  genus  Sahno,  while  our  two  eastern  brook 
and  lake  species  and  the  red-spotted  "Dolly  Varden" 
trout  of  the  West  are  chars  and  in  the  genus  Sahelinus, 


Trout  Breeding.  31 

/ 

which  is  Germanized  latin  for  "little  salmon."  A  name 
is  not  a  little  thing,  even  if  a  rose  by  any  other  name 
would  smell  as  sweet.  We  should  have  only  one  name 
for  one  fish,  but  with  our  great  wealth  of  fishes  I  know 
of  but  three  which  bear  the  same  name  from  Maine  to 
California  and  from  Minnesota  to  Texas,  and  those  are 
the  eel,  the  shad  and  the  sturgeon. 

There  is  a  fish  in  England  known  as  a  salmon-trout. 
There  is  no  fish  in  America  of  that  species  and  conse- 
quently none  entitled  to  the  name.  The  lake  trout  is 
miscalled  "salmon  trout"  in  the  Adirondacks,  and, 
worse  yet,  the  last  part  of  the  name  is  dropped  and  the 
fish  is  called  "salmon."  This  is  almost  as  much  of  a 
barbarism  as  applying  the  name  "salmon"  to  the  pike- 
perch  in  the  Susquehanna,  and  "trout"  to  the  black  bass 
in  the  South. 

The  lake  trout,  properly  so  called,  is  known  as 
"lunge,"  "togue,"  and  perhaps  by  other  names  in  New 
England,  from  Maine  to  Connecticut,  but  those  names 
will  die  out  in  time.  What  is  here  said  of  trout  breed- 
ing will  be  applicable  for  brook  trout,  rainbow  and 
brown  trout,  lake  trout  and  salmon.  The  other  Salmon- 
ides,  whitefish,  smelts,  etc.,  will  be  treated  of  under  the 
proper  headings. 


HOW  NATURE  DOES  IT. 

As  soon  as  the  waters  begin  to  feel  the  first  chill  of  au- 
tumn some  trout  leave  the  deeper  waters  and  start  up 
stream  to  find  the  gravel  beds.  Usually  the  males  are 
at  the  spawning  place  a  week  or  more  in  advance  of  the 
females,  for  pairing  has  not  yet  taken  place.  Something 
tells  the  young  trout  of  last  spring's  hatch,  which  will 


32     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

not  breed  until  another  year,  to  go  to  th^  spawning 
grounds  also,  to  feed  upon  that  most  delicious  piscine 
delicacy,  the  eggs  of  trout. 

When  the  females  arrive  the  pairing  begins,  and  our 
male  char,  which  we  have  always  called  a  trout,  and  al- 
ways will,  although  we  know  better  but  have  a  love  for 
the  name,  in  his  full  war  paint,  his  belly  now  nearly 
black,  with  bright  crimson  on  his  lower  sides  and  his 
back  beginning  to  change  from  oliva  green  to  buff,  his 
lower  jaw — if  he  is  over  two  years  old — with  a  fleshy 
tip  which  prevents  his  mouth  from  entirely  closing,  is 
now  ready  to  do  battle  with  any  rival.  The  use  of  the 
hooked  lower  jaw  of  the  male  trout  and  salmon  is  not 
fully  understood.  Some  one  has  said  that  it  was  for 
grasping  the  female  in  order  to  help  her  to  extrude  the 
eggs,  but  he  does  no  such  thing.  Many  days  I  have 
lain  on  the  loose  boards  covering  the  spawning  races  of 
my  trout  ponds  in  western  New  York  in  order  to  see 
the  spawn  actually  cast  and  impregnated,  and  I  watched 
one  pair  of  trout  eleven  mornings  before  my  curiosity 
was  gratified,  and  I  afterward  saw  the  operation  four 
times  without  such  weary  watching,  for  I  knew  that 
courtship  and  nest-making  preceded  spawning  by  many 
days.  In  no  case  did  the  male  assist  her  delivery  in  any 
way. 

This  is  what  I  saw.  The  female  seemed  indifferent 
to  the  attentions  of  her  mate.  He  chose  her  and  drove 
off  all  others,  fighting  savagely  at  times  and  biting  the 
sides  of  his  rivals  so  that  the  scratches  of  his  teeth  could 
be  seen,  and  several  males  died  from  the  fungus  which 
attacked  the  wounds.  He  would  not  allow  another  fe- 
male to  come  too  near  the  nest.  He  took  no  part  in  mak- 
ing the  nest,  but  kept  his  place  in  the  stream  by  her  side 
when  she  was  quiet,  usually  with  his  head  alongside  her 


Trout  Breeding.  33 

middle.  Suddenly  she  would  start,  turn  on  her  side 
and  whip  the  gravel  with  her  tail  until  her  exertions 
moved  her  forward  of  the  nest,  and  in  this  way  a  clean 
spot  was  made  a  foot  in  diameter  and  about  five  inches 
deep.  After  each  sweeping  of  the  gravel,  and  at  other 
times,  her  mate  would  move  forward  and  rub  his  side 
against  her  nose,  all  the  time  quivering  with  excitement. 
After  several  days  of  nest-making,  the  moment  came — 
she  bent  her  body  into  the  nest  and  seemed  to  rub  for- 
ward on  the  gravel,  and  discharged  some  eggs.  He 
was  at  her  side  and  fertilized  them  at  the  moment.  I 
could  plainly  see  the  milt.  Young  trout  got  the  scent 
of  the  eggs  and  crowded  up  to  feast  on  them,  but  the 
old  fellow  was  on  guard,  while  she  whipped  some  gravel 
over  her  treasures.  Some  two  hours  later  the  same  pair 
repeated  the  performance  and  deposited  more  eggs,  but 
I  watched  them  the  next  morning  without  seeing  more 
spawning  and  do  not  know  whether  she  laid  all  her  eggs 
in  two  batches  or  not.  The  nest  was  covered  up  and 
the  fish  remained  about  it  for  two  or  three  days. 

When  this  takes  place  in  a  stream,  the  eggs  are  im- 
perfectly covered.  The  mother  cannot  see  that  some 
eggs  are  fanned  away  by  the  action  of  her  tail. 
Another  pair  of  trout  may  come  and  choose  the  same 
spot  for  a  nest  and  whip  the  eggs  out,  to  be  devoured 
by  the  yearling  trout,  chubs,  dace  or  other  fishes,  for  the 
spawning  season  is  from  October  to  March.  A  freshet 
may  come  and  smother  the  eggs  with  sediment ;  ducks, 
eels  and  rats  will  dig  in  the  gravel  for  them,  and  fungus 
from  a  few  dead  eggs  may  kill  the  lot.  Nature  pro- 
vides for  this  loss  by  giving  the  trout  many  eggs,  not  as 
many  as  most  fishes  have,  but  enough  to  keep  up  the 
stock  under  favorable  circumstances,  so  that  if  each  pair 
succeed  in  having  a  pair  reach  maturity  it  is  all  that  na- 


34     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

ture  requires.  In  such  an  operation  as  I  have  described 
not  over  ten  per  cent,  of  the  eggs  are  fertilized,  because 
the  milt  fails  to  reach  them,  and  not  two  per  cent,  hatch 
and  live  until  they  are  ready  to  take  food. 

We  beat  nature  in  hatching  fish  as  we  do  in  growing 
corn  or  cotton.  We  impregnate  95  per  cent,  of  the  eggs 
and  raise  about  80  per  cent,  of  the  hatch,  because  we 
protect  both  eggs  and  young  from  all  enemies. 

In  order  to  make  up  for  infant  mortality  the  cod,  the 
eel  and  some  other  fishes  lay  many  millions  of  eggs, 
seemingly  to  provide  food  for  other  aquatic  life,  just  as 
plants  provide  seeds  for  birds  and  mice  and  still  enough 
escape  to  keep  up  the  species.  The  fewer  the  casualties 
to  which  a  race  is  exposed  the  smaller  the  number  of 
eggs  or  young  which  it  needs  to  produce  in  order  to 
cover  the  necessary  losses.  In  fish  generally  it  takes  at 
least  a  hundred  thousand  eggs  each  year  to  keep  up  the 
average  of  the  species.  In  frogs  and  other  amphibians, 
a  few  hundred  are  amply  sufficient.  Reptiles  oftenilay 
only  a  much  smaller  number.  In  birds,  which  hatch 
their  own  eggs  and  feed  their  young,  from  ten  to  two 
eggs  per  annum  are  quite  sufficient  to  replenish  the 
earth.  Among  mammals,  three  or  four  at  a  birth  is  a 
rare  number,  and  many  of  the  larger  sorts  produce  one 
calf  or  foal  at  a  time  only.  In  the  human  race  at  large, 
a  total  of  five  or  six  children  for  each  married  couple 
during  a  whole  lifetime  makes  up  sufficiently  for  infant 
mortality  and  all  other  sources  of  loss,  though  among 
utter  savages  a  far  higher  rate  is  usually  necessary. 

EGGS  OF  TROUT. 

Eggs  of  the  trout  are  comparatively  few  in  number 
and  of  large  size.    They  vary  more  than  the  eggs  of  any 


Trout  Breeding.  35 

fish  that  I  know  of,  ranging  from  five  to  ten  to  the 
linear  inch,  which  would  make  a  difference  of  from  125 
to  i  ,000  in  a  cubic  inch  if  they  could  be  arranged  in 
layers ;  but  as  they  would  lie  closer,  like  shot,  the  differ- 
ence would  be  greater.  To  get  the  number  of  eggs 
taken  from  several  trout  it  was  my  custom  to  measure 
one  ounce  in  a  graduating  glass  and  count  them  and 
then  measure  the  rest  and  multiply.  A  trout  will  spawn 
at  1 8  months  old  ;  it  may  then  be  from  four  to  ten  inches 
long  and  its  eggs  will  be  in  proportion  and  vary  from 
fifty  to  a  hundred  or  more.  A  year  later  it  may  yield 
over  a  thousand,  dependent  on  its  growth  and  condition. 
I  have  taken  nearly  5,000  eggs  from  a  trout  which  might 
have  weighed  four  pounds,  so  that  the  old  formula  of 
"a  thousand  eggs  to  the  pound"  is  not  a  rule.  From  a 
four-pound  codfish  I  should" expect  400,000  eggs.  The 
small  eggs  naturally  produce  small  fish,  but  abnormally 
large  eggs  do  not  seem  to  produce  any  better  fish  than 
those  of  moderate  size.  For  good,  strong  fry  a  trout  at 
its  second  spawning,  when  two  and  a  half  years  old,  is 
my  choice,  and  I  would  never  voluntarily  keep  a  trout 
above  that  age.  I  say  "voluntarily"  because  when  in 
charge  of 'a  State  hatchery  the  Commissioners  and  the 
people  wanted  to  see  big  trout,  and  I  had  them  up  to 
five  pounds,  and  over,  but  they  were  of  little  use  as 
breeders  and  ate  their  heads  off  every  month,  and  their 
eggs  were  almost  worthless. 


MARKETABLE  TROUT. 

There  is  another  reason  why  I  would  not  keep  any 
trout  after  it  had  spawned  the  second  time  and  recov- 
ered the  next  spring,  and  that  is  this :  It  is  too  big  for 


36     Modern  Fishcultitre  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water, 

market.  An  angler  likes  to  capture  a  big  trout  to  show, 
but  he  prefers  to  eat  the  smaller  ones.  Many  years  of  at- 
tendance at  Blackford's  annual  "trout  openings"  in  Ful- 
ton Market  on  the  first  day  of  the  legal  trout  season  has 
shown  that  the  desirable  sizes  are  from  three  to  five  to 
the  pound.  These  are  fried  or  boiled  with  the  head  left 
on  and  are  served  whole  to  a  guest.  If  a  little  larger 
they  would  have  to  be  cut  and  served  in  portions,  while 
those  over  two  pounds  should  be  boiled ;  and  that  is  not 
what  the  epicure  wants,  because  if  his  fish  is  to  be  boiled 
he  would  prefer  cod,  salmon,  lake  trout  or  many  other 
fishes,  for  the  idea  of  having  brook  trout  served  other- 
wise than  fried  or  broiled  never  occurs  to  him,  and  he 
likes  them  whole. 

For  some  years  Mr.  Gilbert,  of  the  Old  Colony  Trout 
Ponds,  and  Mr.  Hoxsie,  of  Rhode  Island,  have  agitated 
the  question  of  selling  the  trout  raised  by  breeders  at 
such  season  as  they  may  choose.  In  the  report  of  the 
American  Fisheries  Society  for  1895,  page  80,  Mr. 
Hoxsie  said :  '  .  .  .  Is  there  not  some  way  in 
which  the  man  who  makes  a  business  of  raising  trout, 
for  what  little  money  there  is  in  it,  can  be  allowed  to  ship 
them  into  New  York  to  the  market  whenever  they  are 
fit  for  it?  The  law  seems  a  little  unjust.  If  I  were  in 
Rhode  Island  and  raised  chickens  and  turkeys  I  could 
send  them  at  any  time,  but  cannot  send  trout  to  New 
York,  it  being  the  market  for  what  I  produce.  One 
year  New  York  passed  a  law  that  we  should  not  get 
fish  [there]  until  the  first  day  of  May.  I  am  not  doing 
a  large  business,  but  that  year  we  did  not  pay  our  ex- 
penses by  about  $1,500.  We  have  shipped  already  this 
season  over  six  tons  of  brook  trout.  The  price  has  been 
low,  but  we  cannot  govern  that  if  we  don't  get  fish  there 
until  April  i6th.  I  would  rather  have  February,  March 


Trout  Breeding,  37 

and  April ;  I  can  then  sell  all  I  can  raise,  but  later  in  the 
season  people  have  gone  out  of  town  for  the  sum- 
mer." 

Hon.  Herschel  Whitaker,  of  the  Michigan  Fish  Com- 
mission, voiced  the  sentiment  of  those  present  when  he 
said :  "A  close  season  for  fish  is  for  their  protection 
during  the  period  of  reproduction,  and  that  is  the  only 
interpretation  to  be  given  to  it.  It  may  work  hardship 
for  those  engaged  in  raising  and  selling  fish,  if  the  law 
precludes  them  from  following  their  occupation.  It  is 
to  the  interest  of  the  whole  people  that  the  close  season 
should  be  established  for  the  protection  of  fish  during 
the  season  of  reproduction,  and  the  interest  of  the  indi- 
vidual should  be  subservient  to  the  larger  interest." 

I  agree  with  Mr.  Whitaker.  I  am  a  fishculturist  by 
profession  and  an  angler  from  choice.  The  opening  of 
our  markets  to  pond-bred  trout  would  open  the  gates  to 
all  the  poachers  of  trout  streams  in  the  country,  and  it 
would  be  impossible  to  keep  their  illegal  catch  from  the 
markets.  The  raising  of  chickens  and  turkeys  is  not  a 
parallel  case,  for  they  do  not  exist  in  a  wild  state  in  the 
East. 

I  have  listened  to  these  arguments  year  after  year, 
but  have  taken  little  part  in  them.  Here  are  my  heretical 
views :  The  brook  trout  ranks  as  a  first-class  table  fish 
in  cities  removed  from  the  salt  water.  In  New  York, 
Boston  and  other  seaboard  cities  it  has  a  sentimental 
value  and  sells  for  30  cents  to  $i  per  pound.  The  sale  is 
mainly  to  city  anglers  who  fish  for  the  trout  at  the 
opening  season,  if  they  can  get  away,  and  who  buy 
the  fish  to  revive  old  camp  memories  more  than 
anything  else.  They  have  them  cooked  at  the  club  or 
take  them  home  and  try  to  make  their  wives  enthuse 
over  them,  just  as  I  buy  venison  chops  every  year  and 


38      Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  ana  Salt  Water. 

recall  camp  scenes  without  getting  my  family  to  enj-oy 
them  as  1  do.  I  don't  believe  that  any  amount  of  trout 
worth  considering  could  be  sold  in  New  York  a  week 
before  the  legal  opening,  for  reasons  given  above. 

As  I  have  said,  the  demand  for  brook  trout  in  sea- 
board cities  is  largely  a  sentimental  one,  based  on  the 
long  trip  into  the  wilderness,  the  return  to  the  half-sav- 
age life  of  primitive  man  and  the  appetite  which  comes 
from  a  day's  tramp,  when  trout  must  be  cleaned  and 
cooked  before  the  hungry  angler  eats ;  and  then  he  re- 
members a  fish  that  is  half  raw  and  half  burned  as  one 
of  the  greatest  delicacies  which  ever  came  his  way.  In 
his  club  or  cafe,  when  his  appetite  was  clamorous  for 
something,  no  matter  what — when  he  could  eat  a  mule 
and  chase  the  rider — he  would  send  the  fish  back  to  the 
kitchen ;  if  he  wishes  to  eat  trout  he  wants  it  properly 
cooked — when  he  is  in  the  city. 

I  am  not  an  iconoclast.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  my  na- 
ture to  be  a  hero  worshiper,  but  the  statements  made 
above  are  what  I  believe,  and  I  will  venture  to  incur  the 
wrath  of  the  angler  who  takes  his  trout  in  the  rushing 
waters  of  the  brook  by  saying:  It  is  the  fashion,  my 
dear  brother — and  I  can  say  with  Walton,  "I  am,  sir, 
a  brother  of  the  angle" — for  you  to  decry  all  pond, 
or  liver-fed  trout,  as  unfit  to  eat.  This  entirely  accords 
with  what  I  have  said  before,  and  is  just  what  you  might 
be  expected  to  do ;  but  as  Prince  Hal  says  to  Falstaff : 
"Mark  how  plain  a  tale  shall  put  you  down."  During 
the  years  that  I  have  attended  Blackford's  trout  open- 
ings I  have  eaten  trout  from  many  places,  wild  and 
liver  fed,  and  as  they  were  marked  by  mutilations  of  the 
caudal  fin  it  was  interesting  to  hear  the  comments  of 
the  dozen  or  more  anglers  each  year. 

It  is  my  opinion  that  a  plump  liver-fed  trout  is  the 


Trout  Breeding.  39 

equal  of  any  other  trout  for  the  table.  I  like  an  occa- 
sional breakfast  of  calve's  liver  and  bacon,  and  why  is 
not  good,  tender  beef  liver  as  good  for  a  trout  ?  Why  is 
not  a  diet  of  liver  as  good  as  worms,  snails,  bugs,  cater- 
pillars, mice  and  small  trout?  This,  as  I  have  said,  is 
sentiment,  pure  and  simple.  It  is  the  romance  that  the 
angler  weaves  about  his  beautiful  fish  which  he  traveled 
miles  for  and  worked  hard  to  get  after  he  got  there. 
Divested  of  this  sentiment  there  would  be  no  fancy 
prices  for  brook  trout.  It  would  take  its  place  in  the 
markets  with  other  food  fishes  and  would  drop  behind 
some  of  them.  As  an  angler's  fish  it  is  a  noble  one,  and 
it  is  one  of  the  best  of  fresh  water  fishes  for  the  table, 
if  it  is  not  muddy. 

When  a  boy  the  perch,  bullheads  and  suckers  from  the 
mill  pond  seemed  to  be  the  best  of  fishes,  and  I  did  not 
understand  why  some  people  turned  up  their  noses  at 
them  and  preferred  the  fish  of  salt  water.  That  knowl- 
edge came  later,  and  outside  of  the  whitefish  of  the  great 
lakes,  and  its  relatives,  there  is  no  fresh  water  fish  that 
I  care  to  buy  more  than  once  a  year.  "If  this  be  trea- 
son, make  the  most  of  it." 

In  camp  I  declare  that  the  brook  trout  just  now  fried 
with  salt  pork,  or  roasted  before  the  fire,  are  the  finest 
fish  that  ever  went  down  my  oesophagus,  but  when  I 
am  only  half  hungry  in  a  New  York  cafe  there  is  a 
change  of  opinion. 

Yet,  after  writing  this,  there  is  a  remembrance  of 
camp  life  that  crops  up  "like  the  faint,  exquisite  music 
of  a  dream,"  and  a  memory  of  trout  fried  in  bear  fat  is 
enjoyed  for  a  moment  and  is  followed  by  the  greatest 
treat  of  my  life  as  memory  harks  back  to  some  plump 
trout  cooked  in  beaver  fat  with  a  beaver's  tail  frying 
among  them.  That  was  a  dish  to  be  remembered,  and 


40     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

the  greater  the  lapse  of  time  the  more  distinct  is  the 
memory. 


CHAPTER  II. 

IN  THE  HATCHING   HOUSE. 

Trout  can  be  hatched  without  a  house,  but  not  as  well 
as  in  one.  Eggs  may  be  procured  and  put  in  the  gravel 
of  a  spring  or  of  a  running  stream — in  "redds,"  as  nests 
are  called  across  the  water — but  the  dangers  they  meet 
there  have  been  told,  and  not  one  in  fifty  will  become  a 
trout.  They  may  be  hatched  in  covered  troughs  which 
have  graveled  bottoms,  but  frost  may  interfere  with  the 
level  or  may  stop  the  water  supply ;  inquisitive  persons 
may  replace  the  covers  carelessly  and  let  in  sunshine,  or 
other  things  may  interfere  with  the  success  of  the  ven- 
ture. By  all  means  do  your  hatching  under  a  roof  if 
you  wish  to  succeed. 

A  house  20x30  feet  will  contain  12  troughs,  placed 
by  twos,  with  a  single  one  at  each  end,  and  in  single 
layers  of  eggs  will  have  a  capacity  of  300,000  eggs 
which  can  be  hatched  and  the  fry  fed  in  the  troughs  for 
a  month  or  more.  The  capacity  can  be  increased  four 
or  five  times,  but  the  fry  must  be  removed  before  feed- 
ing. The  house  should  have  a  cupola  or  an  airshaft  at 
the  top  to  carry  off  the  vapor,  which  would  otherwise 
condense  on  the  walls  and  windows.  Brick  walls  will 
absorb  moisture,  freeze  and  crumble,  and  a  lining  of 
yellow  pine  ceiling  with  the  same  material  for  the  floor 
is  best  because  it  swells  less  than  other  available  woods, 


Trout  Breeding.  41 

and  a  coat  of  spar  varnish  makes  it  bright  and  attract- 
ive. When  I  began  operations  at  Cold  Spring  Harbor, 
N.  Y.,  in  January,  1883,  I  had  an  old  brick  house,  2Ox 
30,  on  the  hill ;  the  water  from  there  went  into  an  old 
tumble-down  wooden  building  of  the  same  size  and 
water  from  a  lower  reservoir,  and  it  was  practically  a 
fed  troughs  on  the  upper  floor,  while  below  we  took 
three-story  hatchery.  Then,  when  the  brown  trout  eggs 
came  from  Germany  I  had  to  put  troughs  outdoors  and 
give  them  water  from  tne  lower  floor.  It  was  all  hastily 
improvised,  for  there  had  been  no  time  to  prepare  for  the 
work ;  but  I  had  then  fifteen  years'  experience  and  knew 
how  to  care  for  the  eggs  until  troughs  and  trays  could 
be  made. 

Salmon  eggs  came  in  crates  from  Maine,  trout  eggs 
from  Caledonia,  N.  Y.,  and  from  Germany,  which 
taxed  the  new  hatchery  beyond  its  capacity ;  but  I 
brought  over  a  lot  of  poor  troughs  from  Roslyn,  made 
under  like  conditions  the  winter  before  for  salmon 
work,  and  had  more  made.  The  only  eggs  which  were 
injured  by  this  imperfect  preparation  were  some  that 
were  in  the  outdoor  trough,  where  frost  and  visitors 
interfered.  One  night  the  frost  choked  the  outlets  on 
the  upper  floor  of  the  wooden  building  and  the  water 
overflowed  the  troughs  and  froze  two  feet  thick  on  the 
outside  of  the  building,  so  that  we  had  to  chop  the  ice  to 
open  the  door.  The  eggs  were  heavy  and  received  no 
damage,  but  it  was  fortunate  that  the  water  supply  was 
not  stopped. 

The  hatchery  may  be  an  inexpensive  shed,  but  the 
floor  should  be  solidly  supported,  so  that  there  is  no 
jar  to  the  troughs  when  people  walk  about.  Windows 
should  be  plenty,  but  provided  with  heavy  roller  shades, 
preferably  of  a  green  color,  so  that  light  may  be  had 


42     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

from  all  sides  except  when  the  sun  may  shine  directly 
on  the  troughs  or  eggs.  If  this  is  not  practicable  then 
make  covers  for  the  troughs ;  these  may  be  hinged  so  as 
to  lie  over  on  the  adjoining  trough. 

Good,  clear  white  pine  is  the  best  material  for 
troughs,  if  free  from  sap  and  knots.  It  swells  tight  and 
the  nails  can  be  set  up,  if  needed.  I  have  used  yellow 
pine,  but  it  is  hard  and  unyielding  and  is  more  difficult 
to  make  tight  because  it  does  not  swell,  yet  it  is  more 
lasting  than  white  pine.  A  trough  of  the  latter  is  good 
for  from  four  to  eight  years,  and  then  soft  spots  of  sap, 
or  heart,  begin  to  show ;  a  patch  or  two  of  one-half  inch 
pine  is  let  in,  embedded  in  coal  tar,  and  it  goes  for  a  year 
or  two  more.  Troughs  of  yellow  pine  made  in  1886  are 
good  as  ever  twelve  years  later,  yet  they  are  unhandy  to 
tack  screen  strips  in  and  more  so  to  pull  a  brad  from. 
Where  these  woods  cannot  be  obtained  some  native 
wood  must  be  substituted.  White  cedar  would  be  an 
ideal  wood,  if  it  grew  large  enough. 

A  distributing^  trough  running  across  the  head  of  a 
series  of  hatching  troughs  has  been  the  regulation  mode 
of  supply  in  hatcheries  since  they  have  existed,  and  the 
practical  worker  knows  what  a  nuisance  they  are.  Run- 
ning the  length  of  the  building,  the  least  settling  opens 
the  joints,  and  their  length  forbids  their  being  moved 
after  having  been  built  in  position.  Then  a  bit  of  sap- 
wood  or  heart  in  some  spot  will  decay,  and  the  whole 
trough  will  be  condemned  and  a  new  one  made.  The 
life  of  such  a  trough  may  be  from  four  to  ten  years,  but 
it  is  always  under  suspicion  of  leaking  at  any  time.  I 
had  one  60  feet  long  that  lasted  eight  years,  but  was 
calked  and  pitched  many  times,  and  I  thought  of  lining 
it  with  sheet  lead  of  about  three  pounds  per  square  foot 
and  then  replace  the  wood  piece  by  piece,  as  needed. 


Trout  Breeding.  43 

Watch  the  carpenter  at  every  point  in  the  making  of 
troughs,  and  especially  in  the  selection  of  the  planks. 
If  a  bottom  plank  has  a  bit  of  sap-wood  on  the  corner 
of  one  edge,  have  it  put  on  the  downward  side,  where 
it  does  not  come  in  contact  with  water.  If  a  side  plank 
has  a  strip  of  sap-wood,  have  him  put  that  edge  on 
top,  above  water,  for  such  parts  are  the  first  to  decay. 
The  hearts  of  the  tree  are  next  in  order  to  rot,  and  if 
there  is  a  heart-streak  in  a  plank  have  it  on  the  out- 
side. 

See  that  the  edges  of  the  bottom  planks  are  not  only 
all  of  a  width,  but  that  they  are  absolutely  straight 
and  the  edges  perfectly  square.  If  the  planks  are 
i|  inches  thick  use  twenty-penny  nails,  wire-nails,  and 
these  are  4^  inches  long.  Have  him  put  the  nails 
2.\  inches  apart,  and  net  in  a  straight  row,  but  alter- 
nately up  and  down  in  order  to  prevent  splitting  the 
planks. 

These  things  may  seem  unimportant  details,  but 
they  are  worth  attending  to  if  one  cares  to  have  the 
troughs  not  only  water-tight  but  also  to  last  as  many 
years  as  possible. 

It  has  been  my  custom  to  take  a  pair  of  compasses 
and  mark  on  the  lower  end  of  each  trough  the  year  in 
which  it  was  made.  On  the  first  trough  in  the  frontis- 
piece may  be  seen  the  figures  1888,  so  made.  This 
enables  one  to  know  just  how  long  that  trough  has 
lived,  and  to  judge  of  the  defects  of  certain  planks.  It 
is  a  record  that  may  be  wished  for  in  later  years. 

The  question  of  painting  or  tarring  the  outside  of 
troughs  may  be  a  debatable  one.  The  troughs  look 
better  for  it,  but  I  incline  to  think  that  it  reta.ins  the 
moisture  in  the  wood,  and  so  helps  to  rot  it.  But, 
above  all,  have  the  troughs  tight. 


44     Modern  Fish  culture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

Of  course  a  slovenly  superintendent  who  is  content 
to  have  leaky  troughs,  a  wet  floor,  and  to  slosh  around 
in  rubber  boots,  cares  nothing  for  a  leak  here  and  there, 
any  more  than  he  does  to  see  men  spit  on  the  floor  of  his 
hatchery,  and  it  is  not  for  him  that  this  is  written. 

The  subject  of  dry  and  clean  floors  interested  me 
years  ago,  and  still  does.  My  floor  at  Cold  Spring  Har- 
bor is  clean,  but  a  trough  that  leaks  a  few  drops,  just 
enough  to  show,  is  an  annoyance.  I  was  called  to  plan 
a  hatchery  at  Bath,  Steuben  county,  N.  Y.,  for  the  State 
in  1894.  I  arranged  for  a  row  of  troughs  on  each  side 
of  the  building,  with  a  six-foot  aisle  in  the  middle  at  the 
foot  of  each  series.  The  troughs  were  arranged  by  twos, 
for  I  would  not  have  them  in  threes  unless  the  lot  was 
too  small  to  expand  the  hatchery  to  the  required  capac- 
ity ;  and  as  the  water  was  to  be  brought  in  a  six-inch  iron 
pipe  for  some  600  feet,' with  a  fall  of  about  10  feet  to  the 
hatchery  floor,  my  old  ideas  naturally  ran  to  having 
the  pipe  branch  above  the  building  and  flow  into  two 
distributing  troughs,  one  on  each  side,  and  to  discharge 
from  the  hatching  troughs  under  the  floor.  I  had  long 
used  brass  gate-valves  in  wooden  supply  troughs,  and 
as  there  were  to  be  18  troughs  on  each  side  I  finally  de- 
cided that  the  following  sketch  would  be  an  improve- 
ment on  any  method  yet  devised,  and  I  made  a  plan 
which  I  hoped  to  introduce,  but  the  Commissioners  got 
into  a  dispute  and  another  man  finished  the  work. 

The  following  are  the  advantages  of  this  mode  of  sup- 
ply : 

1.  Absolute  control  of  the  supply  without  a  drip  when 
shut  down. 

2.  Saving  a  portion  of  the  space  occupied  by  the  sup- 
ply trough. 

3.  The  ease  of  cleaning  the  main  pipe  A  by  the  full- 


Trout  Breeding. 


45 


sized  gate,  which  when  shut  entirely  down  causes  water 
not  used  in  the  troughs  to  flow  over  the  upper  dam  into 
the  ponds. 

4.  Discharging  in  a  central  ditch  under  the  floor. 

5.  Cheapness  in  construction  and  lasting  a  hundred 
times  as  long  as  wooden  distributing  troughs. 

At  the  Long  Island  station  I  ran  the  waste  water  back 
under  the  hatching  troughs  in  four-inch  soil  pipes  to  a 
waste  trough  outside  the  building  (see  frontispiece), 
because  the  ground  under  the  hatchery  is  lower  than 


IMPROVED  WATER  SUPPLY. — A,  six- 
inch  pipe  under  building  in  ditch ;  B, 
lower  end  of  pipe ;  C,  gate  to  free  pipe 
from  sediment ;  DD,  waste  pipes  from 
troughs  ; '  EE,  floor  of  hatchery  ;  F, 
two-inch  pipe  to  supply  two  troughs 

on  each  side  of  the  house;  GG,  brass  gates,  i   1-4  inch,  which 

is  plenty,  with  a  lo-foot  head. 

the  ponds  outside,  but  at  Bath  the  case  is  different  and 
the  arrangement  shown  is  the  best  for  the  situation,  and 
as  it  is  a  different  mode  of  supply  from  any  in  use  as 
far  as  I  know,  it  seems  worthy  of  illustration. 

The  main  pipe  was  to  be  pierced  for  nine  two-inch 
uprights  with  "tees"  to  branch  to  each  side,  under  the 
floor:  these  will  bend  up  and  over  the  troughs,  ending 
in  a  "tee"  with  two  branches  and  gates,  which,  with  a 
head  of  several  feet,  will  give  the  required  flow, 


46     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

HATCHING  TROUGHS  should  be  made  with  great  care 
1  prefer  i^-inch  plank,  dressed  both  sides,  which  leaves 
it  over  an  inch  in  thickness.  Have  your  carpenter  gel 
out  the  bottoms  of  the  best  stuff  and  of  an  exact  width 
to  a  hair.  This  will  allow  screens,  dams  and  trays  to  fit 
all  the  troughs,  and  you  will  have  a  standard  size  foi 
them.  Insist  on  this.  Never  nail  the  bottoms  to  the 
sides ;  it  takes  wider  bottoms,  and  is  the  wrong  way  to 
do  it.  My  favorite  size  for  a  hatching  trough  is  14  feet 
long,  14  inches  wide  and  eight  inches  deep,  inside  meas- 
ure. If  of  i^-inch  stuff  the  side  planks  are  9^  inches 
wide.  Lay  in  white  lead  or  thick  coal  tar.  If  in  white 
lead  do  not  let  it  come  to  the  surface  of  the  bottom  plank, 
for  coal  tar  will  not  dry  over  it.  Rabbet  the  ends  in  the 
bottom  and  sides,  as  shown  in  the  cut,  and  you  can  nail 
both  ways  and  make  tight  ends. 

When  the  troughs  are  made  and  dry  coat  them  with 


END  OF  TROUGH. 


coal  tar  from  the  gas  works,  thinned  with  spirits  of  tur- 
pentine. Have  it  so  thin  that  it  will  strike  in  and  dry  in 
24  hours,  in  summer.  Use  a  half-worn  paint  brush,  and 
when  dry  give  it  a  second  and  a  third  coat.  Be  sure 
that  it  is  thin  enough  to  be  absorbed  by  the  wood  and 


Trout  Breeding.  47 

not  left  as  a  coat  of  paint.  After  four  coats  the  grain 
of  the  wood  should  show.  A  trough  should  be  thus 
coated  every  summer  during  its  life,  but  beware  of  put- 
ting it  on  thick,  like  paint.  After  a  few  coats  there  will 
be  a  gloss,  but  the  object  is  to  have  the  varnish  strike 
into  the  wood.  Coat  all  your  woodwork  and  wire 
screens,  dams,  etc.,  in  the  hatchery,  wherever  water 
touches,  with  the  thinned  coal  tar.  Many  fishculturists 
use  an  asphalt  varnish.  It  is  as  good  as  coal  tar,  but 
while  I  have  seen  troughs  coated  with  it,  I  never  saw  it 
applied.  A  barrel  of  coal  tar,  or  gas  tar — it's  the  same — 
would  cost  less  than  $2,  freight  and  all,  and  last  for  five 
years.  It  is  so  good  that  I  never  experimented  in  any 
other  direction.  The  top  of  the  trough  should  be  three 
feet  four  inches  to  three  feet  seven  inches  from  the 
floor,  according  to  the  height  of  the  workers,  so  that 
they  may  not  stoop  at  their  work. 


TROUGH   FOR  YOUNG  SALMONIDJE. 

In  Forest  and  Stream  of  Feb.  19,  1891,  Mr.  William 
P.  Seal  makes  a  good  suggestion.  He  says :  "The 
idea  which  has  suggested  itself  to  the  writer  as  a  result 
of  observation,  though  not  of  practical  experience,  is  a 
double  trough,  or  trough  inside  a  trough,  as  shown  in 
the  accompanying  sketch.  One  bottom  answers  for 
both,  of  course.  Along  the  sides  of  the, inside  trough 
are  arranged  a  series  of  angular  chambers,  made  by 
placing  pieces  of  wood  or  metal  of  a  required  size  at 
an  angle  from  the  sides,  and  covering  the  mouth  or 
base  of  the  angle  with  wire  gauze,  letting  the  wood 
project  some  little  distance  beyond  the  gauze,  as  shown 
in  the  sketch . 


48     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

"Now,  entering  into  each  of  these  angles  from  the 
outer  trough  is  a  hole  with  a  gate,  by  which  the  flow 
of  water  may  be  regulated.  *  *  *  The  idea  is  to 
introduce  currents  of  water  at  intervals  along  the  en- 
tire length  of  the  trough  in  such  a  way  that  the  fish 


TROUGH  FOR  YOUNG  SALMON. 

will  find  a  number  of  places  with  the  conditions  they 
prefer,  instead  of  the  single  one  at  the  head  of  the  ordi- 
nary trough.  *  *  *." 

Mr.  Seal  gives  no  explanation  of  the  letters  used  in 
the  diagram.  As  I  understand  it  they  are  as  follows : 
BB,  troughs ;  F,  wood  or  metal  angles ;  W,  wire  gauze. 
If  the  inner  trough  could  be  made  to  sit  so  flat  on  the 
bottom  that  no  little  heads  could  wedge  under  it,  this 
plan  would  be  good.  There  is  no  record  of  the  use  of 
such  a  trough. 


WHY  DO  WE  USE  COAL  TAR? 

That  is  a  very  proper  question,  and  to  answer  it  I  will 
have  to  tell  a  story.  Raw  white  pine  troughs  put  in  the 
hatchery  and  fed  with  water  soon  begin  to  exude  a  jelly. 
I  have  taken  sheets  of  it  from  the  bottom  and  sides  that 
were  J  of  an  inch  thick.  This  is  a  form  of  turpentine, 
and  it  will  kill  trout  eggs  and  embryo  trout,  every  one 
of  them.  When  I  visited  the  Caledonia  hatchery  in  the 
spring  of  1868,  the  troughs  were  lined  with  10x12  win- 


Trout  Breeding.  49 

dow  glass  laid  in  white  lead,  and  there  were  trout  eggs 
on  gravel  laid  on  the  glass.  The  swelling  of  the  trough 
left  patches  of  bare  pine  and  there  the  jelly  asserted 
itself.  I  tried  it  with  the  same  result,  and  lost  many 
eggs. 

Mr.  Livingston  Stone  obtained  a  patent  for  a  trough 
of  charred  wood,  June  20,  1871.  This  solved  the  prob- 
lem, for  fungus  will  not  grow  on  charcoal,  and  in  an 
emergency,  in  January,  1882 — when  Prof.  Baird  sent  me 
a  lot  of  salmon  eggs  to  hatch  for  the  Hudson,  and  I 
hustled  around  and  got  Thomas  Chapham's  disused 
hatchery  at  Roslyn,  Long  Island — I  had  a  lot  of  cheap 
troughs  made  and  the  weather  was  too  cold  for  the  tar 
to  dry  and  started  in.  The  eggs  were  far  advanced  and 
began  to  hatch  in  the  spring  water,  which  was  warmer 
than  the  air;  for  I  had  kept  the  eggs  in  the  packages 
just  above  the  freezing  point.  The  first  lot  showed  the 
disease  which  we  know  as  ''blue-belly/'  and  I  saw  that 
the  wood  was  too  raw.  I  took  trough  after  trough,  dried 
them,  filled  them  with  straw  and  coal  tar,  set  them  on 
end  to  make  a  chimney  and  charred  them  deeply.  It 
was  a  success ;  the  remaining  salmon  did  well,  but  the 
charcoal  was  dirty  to  the  hands. 

A  year  or  more  later  I  read  somewhere  of  the  use  of 
coal  tar  for  troughs  and  tried  it.  It  was  perfect,  but 
the  name  of  the  man  who  suggested  it  is  not  known  to 
me.  I  think  he  was  a  Frenchman.  Of  course,  Seth 
Green  claimed  to  know  all  about  it,  for  Seth  had  a  way 
of  discounting  all  discoveries,  as  he  did  in  the  case  of 
dry  impregnation,  which  we  will  come  to  later. 

The  coal  tar  should  be  thoroughly  dried  before  water 
touches  it,  for  it  will  not  harden  under  water,  nor  over 
paint  nor  white  lead.  With  three  thin  coats  there  will 
be  no  more  flavor  of  tar  to  the  water  in  the  trough  than 


50     Modern  Fishcutture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

if  it  was  in  glass.  Asphalt  varnish  is  equally  good,  as 
I  have  seen,  but  coal  tar  was  always  so  handy  and  so 
perfectly  satisfactory  that  I  never  used  anything  else. 

Coat  all  troughs,  trays  and  everything  which  comes  in 
contact  with  the  water  every  summer  and  they  will  last 
long  and  be  sweet  and  clean. 


HATCHING  TRAYS. 

These  should  be  made  J  mcn  narrower  than  the 
troughs.  Make  them  of  fx^  inch  stuff,  to  lie  flat — i.  e., 
the  half-inch  to  be  the  depth.  Heavier  wood  will  float 
the  trays.  Halve  the  corners  so  that  they  can  be  nailed 
both  ways,  and  make  the  length  as  you  wish.  A  14- foot 
trough  wants  about  six  inches  for  the  water  to  spend 
its  downward  force  in,  and  as  much  for  the  lower  dam. 
Seven  screens  of  22  inches  each,  outside  measure,  will 
be  plenty  for  a  trough  of  that  length. 

Have  your  wire-cloth  for  the  trays  especially  woven. 
As  the  trays  will  be  13 J  inches  wide  and  the  selvege 
will  be  irregular,  have  the  wire-cloth  13  inches  and  as 
long  as  may  be  needed.  For  trout  let  it  be  in  this  way : 
Meshes  f  inch  long  by  -J  wide,  the  length  of  the  mesh 
to  run  across  the  trough.  The  warp,  which  runs  the 
long  way,  being  of  fine  wire,  No.  24,  and  double,  going 
over  and  under  the  heavier  woof,  or  filling,  of  No.  18 
wire.  This  gives  us  the  long  mesh  across  the  trough 
and  .the  eggs  do  not  wash  and  bunch  in  the  current. 
The  embryo  fish  will  then  drop  through  the  meshes. 
Put  the  wire-cloth  on  the  frames  with  small  double- 
pointed  tacks,  and  put  one  in  each  corner  of  the  frame 
for  a  leg,  in  order  that  the  water  may  flow  under  the 
tray,  as  well  as  over  it. 


Trout  Breeding.  51 

New  wire-cloth  does  not  take  tar  readily ;  put  it  al- 
ternately in  water  and  in  air  and  slightly  rust  it  and  it 
will  catch  on  at  once.  For  the  trays  a  well-worn  paint 
brush  is  best ;  and  I  have  taken  new  brushes,  tied  them 
down  and  cut  them  off  until  they  were  stiff  enough  to 
use  on  wire-cloth.  Do  all  this  work  in  summer,  in  the 
open  air,  and  let  it  dry  thoroughly  before  giving  a  sec- 
ond coat.  Do  this  each  year  and  look  out  for  every 
rust  spot  and  kill  it. 

Don't  use  copper  wire  for  hatching.  Copper  will  do 
for  outlet  screens  for  ponds,  but  it  will  kill  eggs.  Have 
nothing  to  do  with  galvanized  wire  unless  at  outlets,  for 
the  same  reason.  I've  learned  all  this  by  experiment  and 
give  you  the  result  withou  cost.  The  glass  grilles 
which  are  used  in  Europe  a.e  good ;  nothing  is  cleaner 
than  glass,  but  the  first  cost  and  the  breakage  make  it 
objectionable.  Wire  trays  are  just  as  good,  and  much 
cheaper. 

Some  years  ago,  to  my  surprise,  Mr.  Frank  N.  Clark 
announced  that  he  had  gone  back  to  the  use  of  gravel 
for  hatching  trout.  When  we  used  gravel  we  sifted  it 
so  that  it  was  not  larger  than  the  trout  eggs,  running 
through  a  No.  10  screen  to  get  rid  of  larger  pieces  and 
then  through  a  No.  14  to  work  out  the  sand.  Even 
then  some  eggs  would  get  into  the  gravel  and  die,  grow 
fungus  and  become  a  nuisance,  while  under  the  gravel 
was  a  black  mess  full  of  sulphureted  hydrogen  which 
smelt  to  heaven  when  the  gravel  was  stirred.  Knowing 
that  Mr.  Clark  is  always  sincere  in  all  his  statements 
— although  we  often  disagree  on  some  trivial  point — 1 
wrote  him  asking  for  his  reasons  for  using  gravel,  at 
the  same  time  telling  him  that  I  wished  to  publish  what 
he  said.  He  writes  as  follows : 


52     Modem  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

"NORTHVILLE,  MICH.,  Jan.  21,  1899. 
"Mv  DEAR  MATHER  :  I  do  not  know  how  to  describe 
to  you  my  reasons  for  using  gravel  in  handling  the 
eggs  of  the  Lochleven  and  the  brook  trout,  other  than 
the  fact  that  my  motive  is  to  employ  the  method  which 
will  insure  the  largest  percentage  of  eyed  eggs,  and  by 
the  use  of  gravel  we  certainly  have  obtained  better  re- 
sults. We  use  gravel  only  for  the  eggs  taken  from  the 
parent  fish  at  this  station,  and  then  only  until  the  eye 
spots  appear,  when  they  are  siphoned  off  the  gravel  and 
placed  on  trays.  By  actual  records  at  Northville,  we 
have  met  with  from  10  to  15  per  cent,  greater  loss  by 
placing  the  green  eggs  on  wire  cloth  instead  of  on 
gravel.  What  there  is  about  the  gravel  which  causes  a 
better  percentage  is  more  than  I  can  tell.  It  may  be  due 
to  some  chemical  affinity  between  the  wire  trays  and  the 
water  here  at  Northville,  producing  a  combination  in- 
jurious to  the  eggs,  but  it  is  certainly  not  imagination. 
It  is  proven  by  actual  records.  Cordially  yours, 

"FRANK  N.  CLARK." 

What  Mr.  Clark  says  about  the  water  and  the  wire 
trays  reminds  trie  that  at  Cold  Spring  Harbor  zinc- 
lined  waste  troughs  would  be  eaten  full  of  pinholes  in 
one  season  by  chemical  action,  while  at  other  stations 
zinc  lasts  a  long  time. 

PREPARING    FOR    HATCHING. 

Everything  should  be  ready  and  the  water  running 
through  the  troughs  a  week  or  two  before  an  egg  is 
taken.  Put  in  a  horizontal  screen  at  the  head  of  the 
trough  one  inch  belcv/  its  top.  Let  it  be  the  width  of 
the  trough  and  about  5  inches  long ;  lay  it  on  cleats,  or 


Trout  Breeding.  53 

suspend  it  in  any  other  way.  This  is  to  stop  all  gam- 
marus  or  plants,  which  may  clog  the  lower  screen  but 
cannot  clog  this  one  because  it  is  above  high- water  level. 
Gammarus  are  good  trout  food,  but  are  not  desirable  in 
troughs,  because  they  may  kill  delicate  embryo  trout, 
although  they  do  not  seem  to  hurt  the  eggs.  They  are 
scavengers,  and  will  eat  a  dead  embryo ;  but  it  is  best 
for  the.  fishculturist  to  be  his  own  scavenger  in  the 
troughs. 

At  the  lower  end  of  the  trough  arrange  to  carry  your 
outflow  straight  under  the  floor  or  back  under  the 
trough,  as  may  be  convenient ;  but  I  prefer  to  have  the 
cutlet  hole  in  the  bottom,  and  not  in  the  end  of  the 
trough.  Put  a  one  and  one-half  inch  ''sink  plug,"  to  be 
obtained  of  a  plumber,  two  inches  from  the  end,  first 
filing  out  the  cross  bars ;  then  throw  away  the  stopper. 
A  short  tin  tube  soldered  to  the  lower  end  will  prevent 
all  slopping  over  into  the  pipe  which  takes  away  the 
water. 

An  inch  above  the  hole  put  a  one-half  inch  strip  on  the 
sides  to  hold  a  dam ;  and  an  inch  above  this  put  two  sim- 
ilar strips  for  the  outlet  screen  to  slide  in.  Three  small 
wire  brads  will  hold  the  strips  in  place.  See  cut  on 
page  46,  which  shows  how  the  end  of  the  trough  is 
let  in.  Some  carpenters  prefer  to  let  the  sides  and 
bottoms  of  troughs  project  an  inch  beyond  the  ends, 
but  that  is  one  of  those  minor  matters  of  detail  that 
are  not  of  enough  importance  to  argue  about. 

Now  make  your  one  and  one-half  inch  dams,  and  also 
some  six-inch  dams  to  fit  the  same  place,  and  mark  them 
with  a  chisel  with  the  number  of  the  trough,  for  they 
must  be  water-tight  on  bottom  and  sides.  The  narrow 
dams  are  to  be  used  until  hatching  begins,  and  then  the 
deeper  ones  are  to  be  put  in,  and  the  screens  also.  Fit 


w    g 

SI 
*  I 


Trout  Breeding.  55 

the  screen  tight,  especially  at  the  bottom,  or  heads  and 
tails  will  be  wedged  in  there,  and  the  owners  of  those 
heads  and  tails  will  die.  You  will  believe  more  of  this 
the  second  season  when  you  see  how  small  a  pinhole 
an  embryo  trout  can  commit  suicide  in.  Many  times  I 
have  sifted  fine  sand  along  the  bottom  of  such  a  screen, 
to  keep  tails,  heads  and  parts  of  sacs  from  getting 
under  it. 

This  outlet  screen  may  be  of  finely  perforated  tin,  one- 
sixteenth  of  an  inch.  Mr.  Frank  N.  Clark  used  this  and 
recommended  it  to  me,  but  I  did  not  like  it  because  in  a 
given  area  the  holes  were  the  smallest  part.  I  prefer 
No.  20  copper  wire  cloth,  or,  if  of  iron  wire,  to  be 
tarred,  No.  16.  In  wire  cloth  the  "holes"  are  the  largest 
part  of  the  area,  and  they  last  the  longest. 

Now  that  all  is  ready  in  the  trough,  mount  it  on 
carpenter's  "horses" — three,  if  the  trough  is  not  over 
fifteen  feet  long — and  have  it  exactly  level  across  the 
bottom,  but  give  it  at  least  half  an  inch  fall  in  its  length. 
This  fall  is  merely  for  convenience  in  cleaning,  nothing 
more. 

I  prefer  the  trays  to  set  flat,  on  carpet-tack  legs,  as  de- 
scribed, instead  of  having  them  raised  on  their  "hind 
legs,"  as  some  others  place  them ;  but  this  is  a  minor 
point,  not  worth  discussing. 

Let  the  water  run  through ;  tighten  troughs  after  a 
day  or  two  by  a  nail-set  and  a  hammer;  and  here  is 
where  you  will  learn  why  the  sides  of  a  trough  should  be 
nailed  to  the  bottom,  for  convenience  in  tightening  as 
well  as  for  increased  stiffness. 

Put  the  hatching  trays  in  the  troughs,  weight  them 
down  with  stones  until  they  cease  to  float,  and  then  you 
may  sit  down,  light  your  pipe  and  say:  "Now  bring 
on  your  eggs !" 


56     Modern  Fishciilturc  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

FILTERS. — If  filters  are  necessary  they  may  be  made 
in  wide  troughs  with  coarse  wire  screens  at  the  upper 
end  and  finer  ones  below,  ending  in  cheese-cloth  or  flan- 


TK  OUCH 


30 

PLAN  OF  HATCHERY  WITH  12  TROUGHS;  capacity  30,000  each  in 
single  layer.  A,  sink  for  washing;  B,  closet;  S,  stove; 
WW,  windows. 

nel.  Or  the  water  may  flow  through  sand  and  gravel, 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  material  to  be  filtered  out. 
There  should  be  a  screen  at  the  head  of  each  trough  to 
prevent  stoppage  at  the  outlet. 


CHAPTER  III. 


TROUT  EGGS. — DISTINGUISHING  SEX  IN  FISHES. 

It  is  with  the  fishes  as  with  the  birds :  some  species 
show  sexual  differences  at  a  glance  at  all  times,  some 


Trout  Breeding.  57 

only  during  the  breeding  season,  and  others  are  so 
nearly  similar  that  except  for  the  protruding  abdomen 
of  the  gravid  female  the  sex  can  be  distinguished  only 
by  dissection. 

A  few,  as  the  sharks  and  rays,  have  as  distinct  marks 
of  sex,  as  do  mammals,  such  as  "claspers,"  spines  on 
head  and  fins,  etc. ;  others,  as  the  Embiotoc'oids,  or  vi- 
viparous fishes,  have  a  different  structure  of  the  anal  fin, 
while  the  great  majority  of  fishes,  especially  the  fresh- 
water kinds,  have  merely  a  brilliancy  or  intensity  of 
color  during  the  pairing  season,  which  is  invariably  con- 
fined to  the  males.  There  is  a  very  common  notion 
prevalent  that  goldfish  can  be  distinguished  by  the 
dorsal  fin,  that  of  the  male  being  shorter  than  that  of 
the  female — that  is,  having  not  so  many  rays ;  but  this 
is  entirely  groundless.  The  dorsal  fins  of  this  species, 
Carassius  auratus,  are  very  variable,  as  in  fact  the  entire 
fish  is,  but  this  variation  does  not  indicate  sex  in  the 
least,  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  this  fish  is  one 
whose  sex  cannot  be  told  except  by  dissection,  save 
when  the  female  is  distended  with  eggs. 

The  little  Cyprinodonts,  killey  fishes,  show  during 
the  spring  and  summer  such  great  differences  between 
the  dandy  male  and  its  quaker-like  mate  that  they  might 
be  mistaken  for  different  species,  while  most  of  the 
percoids,  as  perch,  bass,  sunfishes,  etc.,  simply  show  a 
difference  in  the  intensity  of  the  colors.  In  some  of  the 
sticklebacks,  as  Eucalia  inconstans,  Jordan,  the  male  is 
gorgeous  in  red  and  green  during  the  breeding  season, 
while  the  more  sober  bridegroom  of  the  four-spined 
variety,  Apeltes  quadmcus,  contents  himself  with  a 
small  pair  of  crimson  ventral  fins.  Most  of  the  cyprin- 
oids,  at  other  times  indistinguishable,  can  be  recognized 
during  the  breeding  season  by  brightly-colored  fins. 


58     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  brook  trout ;  but  trout 
breeders  learn  to  separate  the  sexes  at  other  seasons  by 
their  general  appearance  without  being  able  to  describe 
exactly  how.  An  old  male  trout  is  readily  determined 
by  its  lank  sides  and  general  air  of  a  dilapidated  roue, 
but  a  vigorous  male  of  three  years  old  before  putting 
on  his  autumnal  dress  is  very  like  the  female,  and  is 
only  to  be  distinguished  by  a  trained  eye,  and  even  then 
mistakes  occur.  It  is  a  matter  of  doubt  if  the  yearlings 
can  be  separated  by  sexes  with  anything  approximating 
a  certainty.  The  males  of  a  northern  sea  fish  closely 
related  to  the  smelt,  and  known  as  the  capelin,  Mallotus 
villosus,  are  said  to  be  provided  "with  a  ridge  of  closely- 
set,  brush-like  scales,  by  the  aid  of  which  two  males,  one 
on  each  side,  hold  the  female,  while  she  runs  with  great 
swiftness  on  the  sandy  beach  and  there  deposits  her 
spawn,"  a  clear  case  of  polyandry,  which  is  exceptional 
among  fishes,  which  vary  more  in  their  methods  of  re- 
production than  the  members  of  any  other  class.  The 
well-known  hooked  lower  jaw  of  the  male  Atlantic  sal- 
mon, Salmo  salar,  is  only  a  nuptial  appendage,  which 
is  afterward  absorbed ;  but  in  several  of  the  Pacific 
species  of  salmon  this  is  a  permanent  mark  of  the  male, 
and  from  this  feature  they  have  received  from  Profes- 
sors Gill  and  Jordan  the  generic  name  of  Oncorhyn- 
chiis,  and  have  been  removed,  in  their  revision  of  the 
Salmonidce,  from  the  genus  Salmo.  To  this  genus  be- 
long the  so-called  "California  salmon,"  now  O  choui- 
cha  of  the  new  nomenclature,  and  four  other  species. 

Among  the  strikingly  formed  and  brilliantly  colored 
tropical  fishes  there  are  often  marked  differences  in 
the  sexes,  both  in  structure  and  color,  and  one  known 
as  the  gemmeous  dragonet,  Callionymous  lyra,  has  been 
described  by  Linnaeus,  and  several  subsequent  natural- 


Trout  Breeding.  59 

ists,  as  two  distinct  species,  as  they  not  only  differ  in 
the  size  and  shape  of  the  fins  and  the  hues  of  the  body, 
but  also  in  the  proportional  size  of  the  head  and  mouth, 
and  even  in  the  position  of  the  eyes.  As  has  been 
shown,  there  are  slight,  if  any,  differences  between  the 
sexes  of  our  fresh  water  forms,  except  at  the  breeding 
season,  when  they  are  manifested  principally  by  color. 
There  is,  however,  always  a  difference  in  size,  for  in  no 
species  with  which  I  am  familiar  does  the  male  fish  ever 
attain  the  extreme  bulk  that  the  aclult  female  does. 
This  difference  is  more  remarkable  in  some  species 
than  in  others,  but  I  do  not  hesitate  to  assert  that  it 
exists  in  all.  In  the  little  "Killey,"  referred  to  above, 
the  female  is  twice  as  large  as  her  mate,  and  the  striped 
bass,  or  Rock,  is  another  example;  all  the  large  ones, 
from  forty  to  a  hundred  pounds,  or  more,  are  females. 
How  large  the  male  rockfish  is  found  I  cannot  say,  but 
I  incline  to  the  opinion  that  specimens  weighing  above 
thirty  pounds  are  rare. 

The  male  brook  trout  begins  to  grow  a  brighter  red 
on  the  sides  as  the  water  cools  in  October,  in  New 
York,  and  as  he  ripens  this  becomes  brilliant.  Then, 
if  not  old  enough  to  be  disfigured  by  a  pronounced 
hooked  jaw,  he  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  all  our 
fresh-water  fishes.  If,  however,  he  does  not  find  a 
mate,  or  is  driven  from  her  by  a  stronger  fish,  his  un- 
expended force  manifests  itself  by  another  change. 
The  crimson  side  fades  into  a  drab,  or  buff,  and  the 
flat  edge  of  the  white  belly  is  bordered  with  a  broad 
black  line.  Such  a  fish  will  yield  milt  at  the  slightest 
touch,  and  it  is  the  best  of  all  milt,  for  it  is  dead  ripe. 
Large  males,  those  of  three  or  four  pounds,  seldom  get 
in  this  state,  and  I  don't  care  for  them  as  breeders. 

If  I  were  breeding  trout  as  a  private  enterprise,  no 


60     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

fish  over  three  years  old  would  be  kept.  That  is,  a  fish 
hatched  in  March,  1890,  would  spawn  in  November, 
1891,  when  twenty  months  old,  and  would  give  more  or 
less  eggs,  according  to  her  growth,  but  should  be  just 
the  right  size  for  market.  A  few  thrifty  breeders  can 
be  kept  with  profit  another  year,  when  they  will  yield 
three  or  four  times  the  amount  of  eggs  that  they  did  a 
twelvemonth  ago ;  but  then  they  should  go  to  market 
the  next  spring  and  make  room  for  younger  stock,  for 
their  market  value  is  decreasing  in  proportion  to  their 
size,  as  I  have  shown  under  the  head  of  "Marketable 
Trout." 


TAKING  TROUT  EGGS. 

In  an  old  English  cook-book  by  a  Mrs.  Glass,  she 
begins  telling  how  to  cook  a  hare,  with  the  words: 
"First  catch  your  hare."  The  trout  culturist  in  quest 
of  eggs  may  follow  the  sage  advice  of  Mrs.  Glass.  But, 
when  the  trout  is  caught,  he  must  pause.  Eggs  are 
desirable,  but  are  worthless  unless  they  are  fully  ripe; 
and,  if  the  eggs  are  not  ripe,  the  mother  will  surely  be 
killed  if  they  are  forced  from  her.  A  male  fish  may 
sometimes  be  ripped  open  and  his  milt  teased  out  in 
water,  but  no  such  Caesarian  operation  will  yield  young 
from  the  female  trout,  and  in  all  trout  work,  extending 
over  half  a  century,  not  a  troutlet  can  say,  with  Mac- 
beth, "I  was  from  my  mother's  womb  untimely  ripped." 

The  trout  are  either  netted  in  ponds  or  streams  or 
entrapped  in  spawning  races,  which  are  covered  grav- 
elly runs,  and  will  be  described  under  the  head  of 
"Ponds."  As  our  brook,  brown,  rainbow  and  most 
other  trout  spawn  in  the  daytime,  the  early  morning  is 


Trout  Breeding.  61 

best  to  take  the  eggs  of  such  fishes  as  are  ready  to 
spawn  on  that  day,  leaving  all  others  for  a  future  day. 
The  lake  trout,  improperly  called  "salmon  trout,"  S\ 
namayciish,  spawn  at  night,  and  as  they  often  live  in 
the  same  lakes,  and  sometimes  have  their  spawning 
grounds  in  common  with  the  brook  trout,  their  differ- 
ent hours  of  spawning  prevent  hybridizing,  far  milt  is 
sterile  after  being  in  water  a  few  minutes. 

In  taking  eggs  from  a  covered  raceway  we  dropped 
a  screen  at  the  lower  end,  threw  off  the  covers  and 
netted  the  fish  into  tubs  of  water  for  examination  and 
assorting.  The  males  are  put  together,  the  females 
that  appear  to  be  ripe  go  in  other  tubs,  while  those  not 
nearly  ripe  are  returned  to  the  pond.  The  ripe  female 
has  a  soft  abdomen  and  the  vent  is  swollen,  protruding 
and  red.  Here  is  the  delicate  point :  to  judge  the 
amount  of  pressure  needed  to  start  the  eggs.  Her  tail 
is  taken  in  the  left  hand  and  bent  upward,  the  right 
hand  holding  the  head  with  a  grip  of  thumb  and  the 
three  last  fingers  on  the  bony  arch  back  of  the  gills ; 
the  forefinger  is  then  free  to  stroke  the  abdomen.  Often 
the  bending  of  the  back  will  start  the  flow  of  eggs;  if 
not,  then  it  may  require  several  light  strokes  to  start 
them ;  but  if  the  trout  is  not  fully  ripe  she  must  be  kept 
a  day  or  two  more,  for  if  much  force  is  used  she  is  apt 
to  die,  and  while  some  of  her  eggs  may  be  ripe  enough 
to  be  impregnated,  they  will  produce  embryos,  which 
will  either  die  in  the  egg  or  live  along  in  a  feeble  man- 
ner and  amount  to  nothing,  few  surviving  the  absorp- 
tion of  the  sac. 

THE  MALE  TROUT  in  spawning  time  has  a  bright  red 
belly  and  is  slim  in  comparison.  He  need  not  be  han- 
dled as  carefully  as  his  mate  with  her  burden.  The 
milt  of  one  male  is  often  sufficient  for  half  a  dozen 


62     Modern  Fishciilture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

spawners,  as  a  few  drops  are  enough  for  the  eggs  of 
one  fish. 

IMPREGNATING  THE  EGGS. — Clean  pans  must  be 
used  and  cleanliness  is  essential  in  all  fishcultural  opera- 
tions. Have  pans  for  this  purpose  and  never  put  any- 
thing but  water  and  eggs  in  them.  Tin,  earthen  and 


STRIPPING  A  SMALL  TROUT. 


enameled-iron  will  do,  but  the  paper  ones  which  I  tried 
once  in  shad  hatching  did  not  produce  strong  fish; 
why,  I  don't  know ;  but  they  were  discarded.  Wet  the 
pan  to  free  it  from  dust  and  lightly  drain  it ;  wet  your 
hands  and  strip  the  female  trout,  remembering  that  she 
has  an  ovary  on  each  side  that  reaches  from  vent  to 
gills.  Begin  near  the  vent  and  work  up  gradually,  and 
when  you  have  finished  she  will  look  very  slim.  Work 


Trout  Breedin. 


. 


as  fast  as  possible,  for  she  is  becoming  faint  and  may 
need  a  rest  in  the  tub  if  you  are  too  long  about  it.  If 
you  have  a  helper,  let  him  strip  a  male  or  two  at  the 
same  time,  right  over  the  eggs;  if  alone,  strip  a  male 
and  then  add  just  water  enough  to  cover  the  eggs  and 
let  them  stand  for  a  few  minutes  and  add  as  much  more 
water. 

The  milt  of  the  male  contains  microscopic  organ- 
isms called  spermatozoa,  which  lie  quiescent  until  they 


SPAWNING  FUNNEL,  to  strip  fish  in,  to  prevent  their  slipping 
among  the  eggs  in  pan  below. 


strike  water,  when  they  begin  to  be  active,  but  die  in 
three  to  five  minutes  afterward.  The  eggs  are  soft 
and  flabby  when  they  come  from  the  female,  because 
there  is  a  loose  outer  coat  which  has  a  funnel-shaped 
orifice  in  it,  which  is  called  the  micropyle.  Through 
this  the  egg  absorbs  water,  and  if  that  water  is  heavily 
charged  with  milt  a  spermatozoon  is  likely  to  enter  and 
the  egg  is  fertilized.  In  twenty  or  thirty  minutes  the 
egg  will  have  absorbed  all  it  can,  and  if  not  impreg- 


64     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

nated  within  that  time  no  power  can  fertilize  it.  Al- 
ways dilute  the  milt  slightly  with  water  or  it  will  not 
be  active.  Bloody  milt  is  not  good.  Here  is  where  we 
beat  nature  by  bringing  every  egg  in  contact  with  the 
milt  and  giving  it  a  chance  to  get  a  spermatozoon  be- 
'fore  it  has  ceased  absorbing. 

At  first  the  eggs  adhere  to  the  pan  or  to  each  other, 
because  they  are  flabby,  just  as  a  piece  of  wet  leather 
adheres  to  and  can  be  made  to  lift  a  brick.  They  must 
not  be  disturbed  until  they  have  drunk  their  fill  and 
are  free,  when  they  are  washed  from  superfluous  milt 
and  placed  on  the  trays.  Leave  them  long  in  the  pan 
and  don't  hurry  their  freeing ;  the  colder  the  water  the 
longer  they  adhere. 

THE  RUSSIAN  METHOD. — The  above  is  the  so-called 
"Russian  Method,"  Which  made  a  great  stir  among 
fishculturists  in  America.  We  used  to  follow  nature  so 
closely  that  we  took  the  eggs  in  a  pan  nearly  full  of 
water.  In  the  New  York  Citizen  of  May  27,  1871,  Mr. 
George  Shephard  Page  had  the  experiments  of  M. 
Vrasski,  a  Russian  scientist,  translated,  and  it  proved 
that  impregnation  was  more  perfect  if  the  eggs  and 
milt  were  put  together  before  water  was  added,  and 
when  we  tried  it  our  per  cent,  of  impregnation  was 
more  than  doubled  and  the  "dry  method"  at  once  be- 
came popular;  yet  sixteen  years  had  intervened  be- 
tween the  discovery  of  Vrasski  and  the  translation. 
All  American  fishculturists  had  been  wondering  why  a 
trout  carried  so  many  unfertile  eggs,  but  had  not  stum- 
bled on  the  secret.  Of  course  one  man  claimed  to  have 
known  it  for  years,  but  as  it  was  his  habit  to  claim 
every  discovery,  no  one  paid  any  attention  to  him,  and 
if  he  really  did  know  it  and  did  not  publish  it  he  could 
not  claim  credit ;  yet  that  fact  never  hindered  him.  In 


Trout  Breeding.  65 

the  reports  of  the  American  Fishculturists'  Associa- 
tion, now  the  American  Fisheries  Society,  it  is  on  rec- 
ord that  he  bragged  of  showing  Mr.  Stone  how  to  take 
trout  eggs  and  filled  the  pan  with  water.  I  visited  his 
ponds  often  and  noted  that  he  was  picking  out  as  many 
white  eggs  as  any  one. 

The  main  points  in  taking  eggs  are :  cleanliness .  of 
all  implements;  wet  hands,  to  prevent  removing  slime 
from  fish,  which  means  death  to  them  from  fungus,  a 
point  that  will  be  taken  up  under  the  head  of  "Dis- 
eases ;"  the  rapidity  with  which  the  eggs  and  milt  are 
brought  together  after  extrusion,  and  the  protection 
from  changes  of  temperature.  Temperature  is  a  vital 
point.  If  the  air  and  water  are  of  nearly  equal  tem- 
perature, all  right ;  but  if  the  air  is  much  colder  than 
the  water,  set  the  pans  in  water  at  once.  If  in  the 
pond,  cover  the  pans,  for  the  sun  must  never  strike  a 
trout  egg.  I  shall  probably  say  this  several  times,  and 
will  now  repeat  it :  never  let  the  sun  shine  on  a  trout 
egg.  If  you  have  a  hatching  house,  take  the  pans  there, 
and  if  the  air  in  the  house  is  too  cold  set  the  pans  in  a 
hatching  trough. 

Remember  this :  Water,  whether  in  brooks  or  lakes, 
does  not  vary  suddenly  in  temperature.  It  takes  many 
days  of  warm  or  cold  air  to  raise  or  lower  a  pond  a 
degree  or  two ;  the  change  is  slow ;  therefore  the  fishes, 
not  being  accustomed  to  sudden  changes,  cannot  stand 
them.  In  winter  the  globe  of  goldfish  stands  in  a  room 
heated  to  70°  Fahrenheit.  "The  poor  things  need  fresh 
water!"  And  they  get  it  from  the  house  service  at 
near  the  freezing  point,  and  after  a  few  shocks  of  this 
kind  that  hardy  and  much-abused  fish  dies,  and  its 
owner  wonders  what  killed  it  when  "it  had  fresh  water 
every  day."  A  trout  cannot  endure  anything  like  that 


66     Modern  Fishculiure  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

treatment,  and  if  the  adult  cannot  stand  it,  how  can  the 
little  bit  of  life  which  is  trying  to  assert  itself  in  the 
egg  which  is  only  half  an  hour  old  stand  it?  Look  to 
the  temperatures  of  air  and  water  when  taking  trout 
eggs. 

The  taking  and  impregnating  of  eggs  is  the  most 
delicate  and  important  part  of  fishculture.  No  man 
can  become  an  expert  by  reading  this  or  any  other 
book.  There  are  things  that  he  must  get  by  experience. 
I  can  tell  him  in  words  how  to  distinguish  and  strip  a 
ripe  trout,  as  far  as  words  will  go,  but  I  realize  that 
the  directions  are  much  like  those  books  whose  titles 
are,  "The  Violin  Without  a  Master,"  and  "The  Art  of 
Boxing,"  etc.  After  reading  such  works  there  is  much 
to  learn. 

I  believe  that  a  novice  may  follow  my  instructions 
and,  after  noting  his  failures  from  year  to  year,  he  will 
get  on  the  right  track ;  but,  if  he  can  afford  it,  it  will 
be  years  to  his  credit  if  he  employs  a  competent  fish- 
culturist,  and  they  are  now  to  be  had  from  the  hatch- 
eries of  many  States.  I  have  taken  eggs  from  the  same 
trout  many  years  without  injury  to  her.  A  trout  can 
retain  its  eggs  if  its  stomach  is  empty,  and  they  some- 
times sulk  as  a  cow  does  when  being  milked,  but  a  full 
belly  causes  her  to  be  glad  to  be  rid  of  her  burden. 


SPAWN    FROM    WILD  TROUT. 

Brook  trout  usually  run  up  into  swift,  shallow,  grav- 
elly streams  to  spawn,  if  thore  are  such  streams  acces- 
sible to  them.  In  Buck  Pond,  near  Meacham  Lake, 
Franklin  County,  New  York,  there  is  no  inlet  stream, 
and  the  trout  spawn  about  the  springs  in  the  bottom. 


Trout  Breeding.  67 

I  once  helped  the  proprietor,  Mr.  A.  R.  Fuller,  take 
eggs  from  fish  which  he  netted  there  in  about  two  feet 
of  water.  Yet  I  have  known  trout  to  spawn  about 
spring-holes  in  a  lake  when  there  was  a  good  inlet 
stream.  In  such  cases  it  is  difficult  to  net  the  fish  un- 
less the  water  is  shallow  and  the  springs  near  the  shore, 
when  a  seine  may  be  carefully  put  out  around  them 
and  hauled ;  but  great  care  must  be  used,  for  they  will 
rush  for  deep  water  at  the  slightest  alarm.  In  all  cases 
there  must  be  a  pen  or  pool  provided  for  such  fish  as 
are  not  fully  ripe.  Out  of  ten  spawners  only  one  may 
be  fit  for  stripping  on  the  day  it  is  caught. 

In  parts  of  Canada,  Vermont  and  the  Adirondacks, 
the  trout  begin  to  go  to  the  spawning  grounds  in  Au- 
gust, and  some  will  be  ripe  by  the  middle  of  September ; 
in  that  case  the  spawning  season  is  over  in  November. 
On  Long  Island  the  spawning  begins  about  November 
I,  and  continues  into  February  in  some  years,  the 
height  of  the  season  being  in  December.  This  is  be- 
cause the  waters  do  not  get  cool  early  in  the  season, 
and  all  fall  and  winter  spawning  fish  develop  their  eggs 
on  a  falling  temperature;  cold  seems  to  stimulate  the 
development  of  their  eggs  as  warmth  does  that  of  the 
spring  and  summer  spawners. 

It  is  best  to  have  everything  in  readiness  a  month  be- 
fore the  spawning  begins  in  order  that  those  fish  which 
run  up  at  first  may  not  be  alarmed  at  weirs  or  traps 
placed  in  the  water  later.  The  males  usually  run  up 
first,  and  often  are  a  fortnight  ahead  of  the  females, 
and  these  males  should  not  be  caught  or  disturbed  dur- 
ing their  search  for  mates.  Mr.  J.  W.  Titcomb,  Fish 
Commissioner  of  Vermont,  recently  read  a  paper  be- 
fore the  American  Fisheries  Society  on  collecting  the 
spawn  of  wild  trout,  and  I  cannot  do  better  than  to 


68     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

quote    the    following,    concerning    traps,    from    his 
paper : 

"Location. — The  location  of  a  trap  should  be  made  at 
a  point  where  it  is  least  likely  to  be  inundated  or  washed 
out  by  freshets,  which  would  allow  the  escape  of  many 
fish  when  they  are  most  likely  to  be  running  in  greatest 
numbers.  A  point  on  the  stream  near  its  mouth  is  ad- 
vised, or  at  some  place  below  any  possible  spawning 
bed,  but  not  near  enough  to  the  outlet  to  be  affected  by 
back  water  from  the  pond.  It  is  desirable  to  have  a 
slight  fall  of  water  at  the  entrance  to  the  trap.  In 
order  to  avoid  washouts,  the  selection  of  a  point  where 
the  channel  is  broad  is  preferable.  The  slats  of  the 
weir  occupying  about  four-fifths  of  the  natural  water- 
way will  act  as  a  barrier  to  raise  the  water  above  its 
natural  level,  more  or  less. 

"Construction. — The  trap  is  a  V-shaped  inclosure  de- 
scribed by  the  mathematical  term,  're-entering  poly- 
gon/ made  of  slats  varying  in  dimensions  with  the 
size  of  the  stream  and  the  force  of  the  current.  I  used 
slats  I  inch  square,  planed  on  two  sides,  driven  into  the 
bed  of  the  brook  vertically,  about  J  inch  apart,  and 
nailed  to  horizontal  timbers  or  hewn  logs.  This  frame- 
work of  horizontal  timbers  consists  of  one  course  laid 
at  water  level  and  a  parallel  course  at  the  extreme 
height  of  the  weir.  The  general  idea  of  such  a  trap  is 
the  same  as  the  pound  net,  there  being  an  opening  of 
4  or  5  inches  in  the  angle  of  the  V.  A  gate  can  be  ar- 
ranged in  the  entrance  with  a  lever  reaching  to  some 
point  obscured  from  the  view  of  the  entrapped  fish, 
which  can  be  lowered  whenever  the  trap  is  approached 
for  inspection.  This  method  of  trapping  trout  is  not 
new,  but  requires  more  precautions  than  for  the  cap- 
ture of  other  fish  less  active  and  gamy,  and  a  few  words 


Trout  Breeding.  69 

of  caution  to  the  inexperienced  may  be  desirable.  Build 
your  trap  to  resist  the  greatest  freshet  the  stream  is 
liable  to  develop.  The  run  of  trout  at  such  times  will 
be  greatest.  Be  careful  to  get  a  foundation  that  will 
not  be  undermined  by  the  constant  washing  of  the  cur- 
rent between  the  slats.  It  is  usually  best  to  entirely 
surround  the  sides  of  a  trap  with  slats  rather  than  to 
depend  upon  the  natural  embankments.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  use  narrow  slats  for  the  sides  of  the  trap, 
as  no  water  passes  through  them,  and  the  only  object 
is  to  secure  an  inclosure  from  which  fish  can  be  easily 
dipped  out.  For  a  stream  6  feet  wide  I  should  build 
an  inclosure  about  6  feet  square,  the  V  extending  into 
the  inclosure  about  3  feet. 

"In  many  localities  it  will  be  found  possible  to  dig 
side  ditches  above  the  trap  and  inclosures,  at  right 
angles,  with  the  stream,  in  order  to  convey  surplus 
water  away  from  the  trap,  and  lessen  the  danger  of 
washout  or  inundation.  The  bottom  of  such  ditches 
should  be  considerably  above  low  water  mark  to  carry 
off  surplus  high  water. 

"A  convenient  place  for  the  pens  is  just  above  the 
trap,  so  that  the  trout  can  be  dipped  from  the  latter 
into  the  former.  They  are  constructed  of  the  same 
material  of  which  the  trap  is  made,  the  upper  side  of 
the  trap  inclosure  being  used  as  the  lower  side  or  end 
of  a  series  of  pens.  These  should  be  made  in  shape 
and  size  to  suit  the  location  and  number  of  fish  ex- 
pected to  be  captured,  and  the  same  precautions  should 
be  taken  with  them  as  with  the  trap  to  guard  against 
washouts.  In  many  instances  the  bed  of  the  brook  is 
hard  gravel  and  stones  of  large  size,  preventing  the 
driving  of  the  slats  into  it.  In  such  cases  it  is  desirable 
to  make  an  apron  at  the  base  of  the  slat-work,  upon 


70     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

which  the  water  will  fall  as  it  passes  through  them,  and 
prevent  washing  out  of  holes  underneath  the  slats. 
This  apron  can  be  made  of  boards  as  an  artificial  bot- 
tom to  the  trap  or  pens,  but  a  cheaper  and  quite  as  ser- 
viceable method  is  to  place  evergreen  boughs  or  green 
underbrush  at  the  base  of  the  slat-work,  covering  the 
same  with  crushed  stone  or  small  stones  from  the  bed 
of  the  brook,  and  then  with  coarse  gravel.  This  fea- 
ture of  construction  is  very  important.  If  there  is  a 
hole  in  the  trap  or  pens  large  enough  for  trout  to 
escape,  they  will  surely  do  so.  In  fact,  they  will  dig 
out  under  the  slat-work  if  not  properly  guarded  against. 
It  is  well  to  have  planks  extending  over  the  trap  and 
pens,  on  which  one  can  conveniently  stand  to  dip  out  the 
fish.  Adjacent  to  the  trap  and  pens,  a  rough  board 
shanty  can  be  constructed,  or  a  tent  can  be  temporarily 
used.  There  will  be  many  stormy  and  cold  days,  how- 
ever, and  I  advise  having  a  shanty  with  facilities  for 
heating  it,  and  with  a  bunk  where  the  attendant  can 
sleep.  Add  to  this  equipment  a  reflecting  lantern. 
Field  stations  of  this  description  are  usually  some  dis- 
tance from  habitation,  and  the  ordinary  comforts  of 
camp  life  should  be  available  to  insure  good  work  of  the 
spawn  taker." 

NUMBER  OF  EGGS  IN  TROUT. 

Mr.  Titcomb  gives  a  very  interesting  table  of  the 
yield  of  eggs  from  trout  of  different  sizes,  which  is 
worth  preserving.  He  says  : 

"Twenty-nine  female  trout,  stripped  of  spawn  at  this 
field  station  November  26^  1896,  were  measured  and 
weighed  and  the  number  of  eggs  yielded  by  each  re- 
corded. The  girth,  as  given  in  the  following  table, 


Trout  Breeding.  71 

was  taken  before  the  trout  were  stripped  and  with  a 
scale  which  might  not  be  regarded  as  entirely  accurate, 
but  approximately  so.  Some  of  these  trout  had  appar- 
ently dropped  part  of  their  eggs  before  being  captured : 


Length 

Girth 

Wei 

,ght 

in  inches. 

in  inches. 

Its. 

ozs. 

13 

1 

1 

0 

18 

7% 

2 

6 

10 

7% 

6% 

11% 

6% 

8 

17 

11 

2 

1 

17% 

11 

1 

14%. 

8% 

4 

3 

12% 

11% 

12% 

7  * 

10 

11% 

6V4 

8 

11% 

6 

8 

10% 

5% 

6% 

12 

7 

9% 

16% 

9 

1 

10% 

11  " 

6 

8 

13 

6% 

11%. 

17 

10 

2 

1 

13 

6% 

11%. 

11% 

6V* 

11% 

12 

6 

10 

16 

9% 

1 

9 

10 

5% 

6% 

16 

30 

1 

14% 

36% 

10% 

1 

12 

14V^ 

8 

1 

2^ 

8" 

s7! 

1 

8 

17 

10% 

2 

15 

9% 

1 

8 

No.  of 


Total   for  29   trout 31      6% 


1,394 

2,665 

492 

615 

2,563 

2,358 

130 

1,312 

820 

410 

615 

308 

820 

923 

615 

1,025 

2,665 

923 

820 

718 

1,845 

656 

1,948 

2,563 

1,845 

1,074 

1,845 

2,665 

1,948 

38,580" 


My  estimate  given  below  is  not  as  large  as  this,  but 
Mr.  Titcomb  gives  figures  from  a  record,  while  mine, 
written  before  I  saw  his,  is  merely  an  estimate  such 
as  would  be  given  offhand  in  reply  to  a  question. 

The  flow  of  water  in  a  hatching  trough  should  be 
about  100  gallons  per  hour  for  each  10,000  eggs. 

If  the  work  is  distant  from  a  hatchery  there  should 
be  troughs  or  trays  for  developing  the  eggs  as  they 
are  taken.  These  will  be  treated  in  another  chapter. 
In  gathering  eggs  in  streams  on  Long  Island  my  men 


72     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

had  less  than  a  mile  to  go  from  the  hatchery  and 
brought  the  eggs  back  with  them  each  morning. 

The  following  is  my  estimate  of  the  yield  of  eggs  of 
trout  of  different  sizes : 


Age.  Weight.  Eggs. 

1%  years.  3  to  5  oz.  50  to     160 

2%  years.  14  oz.  to  Ui  Ibs.  700  to  1,000 

3%  years.  2  to  3  Ibs.  1,200  to  2,000 

Not  known  3y2  to  5  Ibs.  2,000  to  4,000 


These  were  pond-fed  trout  and  the  ages  were  re- 
corded from  March  i  of  each  year.  Thus  :  A  trout  of 
March  i,  1890,  would  be  i  year  and  8  months  old  in 
November,  1891 ;  by  some  the  fish  would  be  classed  as 
two-year-olds  and  by  others  yearlings.  With  me  they 
were  "yearlings"  until  actually  two  years  old.  I  have 
had  much  larger  trout  at  the  ages  given  above,  but 
have  given  a  fair  average  weight. 


PACKING  EGGS  FOR  SHIPMENT. 

No  eggs  should  be  p;icked  for  shipment  until  the 
eyes  are  plainly  visible,  and,  in  fact,  the  older  the  bet- 
ter, if  possible.  The  embryo  before  the  eye  stage  is 
reached  is  very  delicate  and  easily  killed  by  a  jar  of 
any  kind ;  even  a  shaking  of  the  hatching  trough  may 
injure,  if  not  kill  it.  But  after  the  eyes  can  be  seen 
the  embryo  begins  to  get  strong  and  will  bear  rougher 
treatment. 

For  transporting  freshly  taken  eggs  from  the  streams 
to  the  hatchery  my  men  used  tin  water  pails  and 
brought  them  in  water,  if  they  came  down  the  mill- 
ponds  in  a  boat,  but  if  they  came  from  a  stream  down 


Trout  Breeding.  73 

the  harbor  and  walked  home  they  had  a  box  i  foot 
each  way  with  a  swinging  door.  In  this  there  were 
light  frames  -|  inch  deep  with  bottoms  of  canton  flannel, 
woolly  side  up ;  on  these  the  eggs  were  floated,  under 
water,  and  evenly  distributed  in  a  single  layer  until 
each  box  was  filled.  An  ordinary  trunk  or  drawer 
handle  on  the  top  served  to  carry  it  by.  On  arriving 
at  the  hatchery  the  trays  are  put  in  the  troughs,  and  by 
the  movement  of  water  by  a  feather  the  eggs  are 
gathered  to  the  lower  side  of  the  tray  and  then  turned 
out.  It  does  not  hurt  them  to  fall  when  in  water,  but 
to  fall  in  air  and  strike  the  surface  of  water  is  fatal. 

To  pack  for  a  week's  journey  by  rail  the  eggs 
should  be  well  advanced  and  the  embryo  quite  well 
colored — say,  forty-five  days. old.  If  only  a  thousand 
tre  to  be  sent,  a  box  of  tin  or  wood  8x4x3  inches  deep 
will  do,  but  not  a  cigar-box,  because  of  the  odor.  Make 
holes  in  the  bottom  for  drainage,  lay  an  inch  of  living 
swamp-moss — sphagnum — on  the  bottom,  then  cover 
with  mosquito  netting,  one  layer  of  eggs  covered  with 
netting,  a  thin  layer  of  moss,  and  so  on,  covering  with 
moss.  Press  the  cover  down  hard ;  you  can't  hurt  them 
by  pressure  of  moss;  and  they  should  be  put  up  so 
(irmly  that  if  dropped  endwise  on  the  floor  not  an  egg 
would  stir.  Then  get  a  larger  box  and  pack  the  smaller 
one  in  it  with  at  least  three  inches  of  sawdust  on  top, 
sides  and  bottom,  and  mark:  "Fish  eggs;  keep  cool, 
but  don't  let  'em  freeze." 

The  principle  is  this :  The  little  fish  within  the  egg 
needs  oxygen  as  well  as  an  adult.  It  would  die  in  still 
water  after  the  oxygen  was  absorbed,  just  as  its  parents 
would.  The  living  moss  gives  off  oxygen  and  holds 
the  necessary  moisture,  and  that's  all  there  is  of  it.  The 
mosquito  netting  is  a  convenience  to  the  one  who  un- 


74     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

packs  them  because  he  does  not  have  to  pick  the  eggs 
out  of  the  moss. 

To  pack  eggs  for  foreign  shipment  is  a  different 
affair,  although  many  fishculturists  do  not  think  so, 
and  pack  for  a  two-weeks'  trip  as  described  above  and 
let  them  go. 

The  late  Prof.  Spencer  F.  Baird,  Fish  Commis- 
sioner of  the  United  States  from  1871  until  his  death  in 
1887,  appointed  me  in  charge  of  foreign  exchanges  of 
eggs  and  fish  in  1877.  In  his  day  there  were  constant 
exchanges  with  Germany,  and  shipments  of  eggs  of 
trout,  quinnat  salmon  and  our  lake  whitefish  to  Eng- 
land, France  and  Holland.  I  opened  all  foreign  boxes, 
picked  out  the  dead  eggs,  gave  the  living  a  "drink"  and 
a  wash,  repacked  what  were  good  and  sent  them  to  the 
different  Government  or  State  hatcheries.  I  repacked 
all  eggs  that  were  to  go  abroad,  and  in  1877  and  1878 
went  with  the  shipments  to  Germany.  These  things 
are  mentioned  to  show  my  right  to  an  opinion  on  the 
subject. 

In  the  years  named  I  repacked  the  eggs  of  quinnat 
salmon  on  flannel  trays,  above  which  was  a  box  for  ice, 
which  by  its  drip  "kept  the  eggs  cool  and  moist,  and  the 
trays  were  so  arranged  as  to  be  inspected  and  the  dead 
removed,  for  in  dead  eggs  lies  great  danger  to  the  liv- 
ing. On  the  first  trip  only  25,000  were  so  packed, 
while  the  remainder  went  in  the  original  packages, 
without  opening,  as  per  order  from  Prof.  Baird  by 
request  of  the  original  packer.  My  box  turned  out 
well ;  the  others  were  a  total  loss,  and  after  that  I  was 
given  carte  blanche  to  repack  as  I  saw  fit.  The  next 
year  I  took  100,000  over  safely  and  received  the  thanks 
of  the  Deutsche  Fischerei  Verein,  a  silver  medal  from 
the  Societe  d'Acclimation,  Paris,  and  $200  from  the 


Trout  Breeding.  75 

King  of  Holland,  sent  through  Mr.  C.  J.  Bottemanne, 
Inspector  of  Fisheries,  Bergen  op  Zoom. 

In  after  years  I  packed  as  follows :  A  layer  of  eggs 
on  trays,  a  cover  of  mosquito  netting  and  a  thick  layer 
of  moss ;  then  a  tray  with  perforated  zinc  bottom 


THE  FIRST  REFRIGERATING  Box  FOR  SHIPPING  SALMON   EGGS 
TO  EUROPE. 

filled  with  ice,  cover  screwed  on  and  the  box  packed  in 
another  with  sawdust.  This  packing  did  not  need  an 
attendant,  and  at  the  World's  Fischerei  Austellung, 
Berlin,  1880,  it  received  a  bronze  medal.  . 


76     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

Mr.  W.  Oldham  Chambers,  secretary  of  the  Na- 
tional Fishculture  Association  of  England,  in  his  his- 
tory of  fishculture,  "Land  and  Water,"  March  27,  1886, 
says :  "We  may  well  take  a  lesson  from  the  American 
system  of  packing,  which  is  very  simple,  but  most  effi- 
cacious in  attaining  the  desired  end,  which  is  to  dimin- 
ish as  much  as  possible  the  rate  of  mortality  through 
injury.  In  the  first  place,  the  ova  are  placed  into  trays, 
consisting  of  calico  (canton  flannel)  stretched  upon 
wooden  frames,  which  are  deposited  one  above  the 
other  in  the  centre  of  a  large  box,  each  tray  being  inter- 
laid with  moss.  Around  the  pyramid  of  trays,  which 
are  fixed  firmly  into  position,  a  partition  is  reserved, 
serving  as  a  receptacle  for  ice  and  sawdust — two  most 
important  factors  in  transmitting  ova.  On  arrival  at 
their  destination  the  eggs  can  be  readily  unpacked  by 
removing  the  trays  from  the  box,  clearing  away  the 
moss  between  each,  and  turning,  the  ova  en  masse  by 
means  of  water  into  the  hatching  troughs.  The  orig- 
inator of  this  capital  method  is,  I  believe,  Mr.  Fred 
Mather,  of  New  York.  I  am  able  to  testify  to  the  fact 
that  not  more  than  thirty  eggs  out  of  every  thousand 
sent  me  at  various  periods  have  perished  during  the 
journey  from  New  York  to  London,  which  is  an  evi- 
dence of  the  skill  displayed  in  packing  them." 

Very  often  I  received  foreign  eggs  packed  in  the 
old  style,  and  after  picking  out  the  dead  ones  reported 
the  remainder  in  good  order,  being  required  to  make 
an  immediate  report.  But  I  learned  to  deduct  at  least 
half  because,  with  my  first  report  in  hand,  I  was  ex- 
pected to  turn  out  a  proportionate  lot  of  fry. 

Many  "good"  eggs  either  died  a  week  later  or  pro- 
duced deformities  which  could  never  live.  It  is  a.  fact 
that  an  injury  to  an  embryo  is  not  always  fatal  (a  no- 


Trout  Breeding.  77 

table  instance  of  this  may  be  found  in  the  first  chapter 
of  Tristram  Shandy),  and  fish  eggs 'may  be  injured  in 
transit  by  heat,  concussion,  or  a  lack  of  moisture,  so 
that  the  embryo  will  come  into  the  world  only  to  die. 

Concussion  is  more  immediately  fatal  than  a  high 
temperature ;  it  kills  within  a  few  days.  Lack  of  mois- 
ture is  shown  at  once  by  indented  eggs,  and  upon  the 
degree  of  indentation  rests  the  damage.  I  have  ex- 
perimented with  such  eggs  and  have  found  that  those 
only  slightly  indented  have  produced  good  fish,  while 
others  somewhat  drier  did  uct.  A  high  temperature 
on  eggs  of  Salmonidcc,  and  it  is  of  these  that  I  speak, 
makes  weak  embryos,  if  they  live  to  break  the  shell. 
They  hatch  head  first,  and  all  fishculturists  know  that 
such  fish  have  a  small  chance  for  life,  or  they  have  not 
strength  enough  to  straighten  from  the  coil  in  which 
they  have  been  and  are  ''whirligigs,"  spinning  round 
in  one  direction  at  every  effort  to  move.  These  die  oi 
starvation  because  they  cannot  swim. 

A  lot  of  saibling  eggs  received  from  Germany  looked 
first-rate,  but  one-fifth  of  the  embryos  had  not  strength 
enough  to  straighten  after  hatching.  Another  result 
of  high  temperature  en  route  is  a  softening  of  the  egg, 
either  the  outer  covering  or  some  part  beneath,  and 
these  embroys  hatch  but  do  not  live  to  take  food. 

Of  some  eggs  of  our  lake  whitefish  sent  to  me  by 
Mr.  Clark  for  transmission  to  Germany,  and  repacked 
in  my  boxes,  the  late  Herr  von  Behr  wrote  as  follows : 

"Berlin,  Feb.  i,  1881. 

"MR.  MATHER:  It  is  wonderful  how  good  the 
whitefish  eggs  arrived.  I  divided  them  and  sent  them 
to  many  parts  of  Germany  and  Austria,  with  no  loss 
tp  speak  of.  This  manner  of  packing  may  be  immor- 


78     Modern  Fishcidture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

tal!     And  if  the  promised  trout  eggs  come  in  equally 
good  shape  I  will  be  happy." 


CHAPTER  IV. 


CARE  OF  TROUT  EGGS. 

These  things  will  kill  your  eggs  in  the  troughs  or 
in  the  nests,  or  redds,  in  the  stream  :  The  sun  is  deadly ; 
two  minutes  of  direct  sunshine  through  a  crack  will 
kill  every  egg  it  strikes.  Sediment  will  close  the  pores 
in  the  egg  and  smother  the  embryo.  A  sudden  jar  on 
the  trough,  a  heavy  weight  falling  on  the  floor  or  con- 
cussion of  any  kind  will  either  kill  or  deform  the  em- 
bryos, according  to  their  stage  of  development.  Rats 
and  mice  will  eat  the  eggs,  and  one  dead  egg  will  kill 
all  that  it  touches  if  left  until  fungus  forms  on  it — say 


Trout  Breeding.  79 

in  three  or  four  days.  In  the  streams  all  these  dangers 
are  mutiplied  ten-fold,  and  to  them  are  added :  ducks, 
geese,  swans,  eels,  suckers,  chubs,  bullheads  and  year- 
ling trout,  for  the  eggs  of  trout  and  salmon  seem  to 
have  an  attractive  odor  for  fishes,  and  in  England 
poachers  use  salmon  eggs,  probably  not  impregnated, 
but  direct  from  the  fish,  as  a  lure  for  trout  that  is  said 
to  be  irresistible,  and  salmon  roe  is  even  salted  down 
for  that  purpose. 

Hatching  the  eggs  of  brook  trout  is  a  simple  matter 
if  proper  arrangements  are  made  at  first.  The  condi- 
tions required  are  a  steady  flow  of  water  at  a  low  tem- 
perature, the  absence  of  sediment,  and  the  exclusion  of 
light,  enemies,  and  all  decaying  animal  or  vegetable 
matter  from  the  water,  especially  such  as  might  arise 
from  dead  eggs — conditions  which  can  usually  be  best 
obtained  where  a  spring  rises,  but  are  often  available 
below  it  if  sufficient  fall  can  be  obtained. 

Let  us  suppose  that  the  owner  wishes  to  make  an 
experiment  to  see  what  he  can  do  in  hatching  trout, 
with  which  he  has  had  no  previous  experience,  and  does 
not  care  to  go  to  the  expense  of  building  a  hatching 
house  until  he  has  proved  his  ability  to  manage  one. 
He  wishes  to  try  10,000  eggs  with  as  little  expense  as 
possible  beyond  their  cost. 

A  tight  trough  of  clean,  well-seasoned  pine,  ten  feet 
long,  fourteen  inches  wide,  and  eight  inches  deep,  with 
one  end  open,  will  do.  Make  according  to  directions 
for  troughs.  Place  strips  across  it  at  eighteen  inches 
apart,  making  nests  an  inch  deep ;  cover  this  with  fine, 
well- washed  gravel,  about  the  size  of  buckwheat,  or 
larger,  to  the  depth  of  half  an  inch,  put  on  a  cover  with 
hinges  and  lock,  place  a  screen  in  the  lower  end  to  keep 
put  mice  and  insects,  and  the  trough  is  tnen  ready.  The 


8o     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water, 

trough  may  be  placed  by  making  a  dam  with  a  board, 
a  foot  or  more  in  height,  and,  tapping  it  with  a  half- 
inch  pipe,  let  it  run  into  the  upper  end  of  the  trough, 
which  should  be  slightly  raised,  so  that  there  will  be  a 
small  ripple  over  the  strips,  but  not  current  enough  to 
carry  away  the  eggs  when  placed  upon  the  gravel. 

If  this  trough  is  in  a  spring  house,  or  a  hatching 
house  is  built,  where  a  settling  reservoir  can  be  used,  it 
will  be  found  a  great  help  in  keeping  the  eggs  free  from 
sediment  which  will  collect  and,  partly  covering  the 
egg,  interfere  with  its  vitality  by  depriving  it  of  its 
power  of  absorbing  oxygen  from  the  water  in  a  man- 
ner analogous  to  breathing.  The  trough  being  in  readi- 
ness and  the  eggs  received,  fill  the  trough  by  a  dam  at 
lower  end  and  place  the  boxes  in  the  trough  before 
opening  until  they  have  acquired  its  temperature,  then 
take  a  pan  of  water,  remove  the  eggs  and  rinse  them 
free  from  any  dirt  in  the  moss,  pick  out  the  few  dead 
ones,  which  you  will  at  once  recognize  by  their  milky 
whiteness,  dip  the  edge  of  the  pan  under  water  and 
let  the  eggs  drop  on  the  gravel  to  be  afterward  dis- 
tributed with  the  wing  feather  of  a  fowl.  Ever  re- 
member these  vital  rules :  never  let  the  sun  shine  upon 
the  eggs,  never  pour  them  through  the  air  to  strike  the 
surface  of  the  water  (although  they  may  fall  any  dis- 
tance under  water)  and  never  expose  them  to  sudden 
changes  of  temperature. 

Having  placed  the  eggs  on  the  gravel,  all  that  is  now 
required  is  a  daily  inspection  to  see  that  the  water  is 
running  steadily,  and  to  remove  such  eggs  as  may  die 
from  time  to  time,  to  prevent  them  from  decay  and 
growing  a  woolly  fungus  which  is  very  deadly.  They 
should  also  be  feathered  over  as  often  as  any  sign  of  a 
deposit  of  sediment  is  observed,  beginning  at  the  head 


Trout  Breeding.  8l 

of  the  trough  and  working  it  down.  This  requires  to 
be  attended  to  much  oftener  when  some  distance  below 
the  spring,  as  all  disturbance  above  tends  to  foul  the 
water  and  the  flow  in  the  trough  is  not  strong  enough 
to  carry  it  through.  A  box  with  the  bottom  knocked 
out,  and  a  fine  sieve  substituted,  is  good  to  fasten  above 
the  pipe  to  keep  leaves  and  coarse  particles  out. 

In  the  hatching  house  the  use  of  gravel  is  nearly 
obsolete,  although  Mr.  Frank  N.  Clark,  a  veteran  fish- 
culturist  of  acknowledged  ability,  has  recently  returned 
to  its  partial  use,  as  has  been  told  in  these  pages. 
Frames,  with  wire  bottoms,  are  used,  as  described 
under  that  head.  The  frames  are  often  placed  one 
above  the  other  to  the  number  of  five  or  six,  thereby  in- 
creasing the  hatching  capacity  of  the  trough  as  many 
times,  and  rendering  the  cleaning  easily  and  thoroughly 
done  by  raising  the  frames,  sprinkling  them  with  a 
common  watering  pot,  and  washing  out  the  trough  with 
a  small  broom ;  with  this  system  no  strips  are  used,  but 
for  simple  experiment  the  gravel  will  do,  it  being  the 
old  system  under  which  we  worked  for  years  before  the 
introduction  of  the  frames.  But  while  five  or  six  lay- 
ers of  eggs  may  be  developed,  these  should  not  be  al- 
lowed to  hatch  in  the  trough  or  the  young  would  be 
smothered. 

A  trout  egg  requires  60  to  TOO  or  more  days  to  hatch, 
according  to  temperature,  and  the  colder  it  is,  down  to 
freezing,  the  longer  it  takes.  Warm  water,  60°  Fahr. 
and  upward,  hatches  them  quickly,  but  leaves  the  em- 
bryos weak  and  liable  to  die.  After  hatching,  the  water 
in  the  trough  may  be  deepened  and  the  current  slightly 
increased ;  the  strongest  of  the  fry  will  work  up  stream 
and  the  weaker  will  try  to  hide  or  be  carried  against  the 
screen,  where  they  will  finally  be  suffocated  by  the 


82     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

picssure  of  the  water  closing  their  gills  against  the 
wire.     These  had  better  be  turned  loose  before  dying. 


TOOLS  OF  THE  CRAFT. 

The  implements  in  use  in  the  troughs  are  few  and 
simple.  Wisp-brooms  to  clean  troughs  and  trays  from 
5>lime.  Strong  feathers  in  wooden  handles  to  move 
eggs  that  may  be  washed  in  heaps — the  wing  feathers  of 
geese  are  best,  because  the  quills  are  stiffen  Nippers 
for  removing  dead  eggs  or  other  substances  are  best 
made  of  red  cedar;  a  piece  7  inches  long  by  ij  inches 
wide  and  J  inch  thick  will  do.  Bore  a  ^-inch  hole  an 
inch  and  a  half  from  one  end  and  rip  from  the  other  end 
into  the  hole  with  a  saw  and  then  trim  down  until  you 
have  a  pair  of  nippers  that  are  springy  and  will  open 
themselves.  Either  flatten  and  hollow  the  ends  to  hold 
an  egg,  or  better  still,  whip  on  loops  of  fine  brass  wire. 
Then  make  square  frames  of  heavier  brass  wire  and  put 
in  a  wooden  handle,  the  frames  being  3  inches  square. 
Cover  them  with  "millinet,"  such  as  milliners  use,  sew 
it  on  perfectly  flat  and  it  is  handy  for  picking  up  lots  of 
eggs  that  have  got  off  the  trays  or  for  other  purposes. 
Strong  glass  tubes,  about  three-quarters  of  an  inch 
outside  diameter,  and  ten  inches  long,  are  very  handy 
for  picking  up  eggs  or  embryos  for  examination.  Stop 
one  end  with  the  finger  and  put  the  other  end  near  the 
object  to  be  lifted.  Remove  the  finger  quickly  and  let 
the  water  rush  in  with  the  eggs,  dirt  or  whatever  you 
may  wish.  Close  the  top  again  and  also  the  bottom 
and  then  you  can  examine  the  object  at  leisure. 

These  things,  with  a  microscope  and  thermometer, 
are  all  that  I  need  to  hatch  several  millions  of  trout.  Go 


Trout  Breeding.  83 

over  the  eggs  each  day,  remove  all  dirt,  dead  eggs  or 
other  matter ;  keep  everything  clean,  see  that  the  flow 
of  water  is  regular  and  wait  for  the  hatching  to  begin. 


HATCHING  IN  BULK. 

Some  years  ago  I  devised  a  series  of  trays  to  hatch  in 
layers,  which  improved  on  the  Clark- Williamson 
trough,  which  had  fixed  partitions  in  it  where  the  water 
went  under  one  and  over  the  next.  (See  cut.)  Fig.  i 
is  copied  from  plate  XVI,  Report  U.  S.  F.  C.,  1872-73, 


and  shows  a  "nest  of  trays  in  Williamson's  Double 
Riffle  Hatching  Box."  It  will  be  noticed  that  the 
dams  are  permanent  and  in  pairs,  the  upper  one  being 
the  lowest  to  permit  the  water  to  flow  over  it  and  up 


84     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

under  the  next  one,  which  extends  above  the  water  line, 
thus  forcing  the  water  downward  to  flow  up  through 
the  nest  of  trays  and  then  down  again. 

Fig.  2  is  my  system,  so  arranged  as  to  secure  the 
same  result  and  yet  have  no  dams  in  the  troughs,  which 
may  be  used  to  hatch  single  layers  when  the  house  is 
not  crowded.  The  trays  should  be  square  and  of  exact 
size,  only  one-quarter  inch  smaller  than  the  inside  of 
the  trough.  I  have  urged  that  all  troughs  be  of  exact 
size  inside,  in  order  to  avoid  ill-fitting  trays.  Each 
tray  should  fit  any  trough.  Rabbet  the  bottoms  of  the 
trays  so  that  the  wire-cloth  is  sunk  in,  for  the  trays  must 
set  tightly  on  each  other.  Use  No.  14  wire-cloth, 
which  is  small  and  does  not  injure  the  embryos  by  let- 
ting sacs  and  tails  through. 

The  top  tray,  A,  has  no  eggs  on  it,  but  has  a  stop- 
water,  D,  fast  to  the  side,  which  must  be  put  up  stream. 
The  lower  tray,  4.  has  a  half-inch  square  strip  on  three 
sides,  which  forces  the  water  up  through  the  eggs.  The 
water  line  is  at  W.  To  each  gang  of  trays,  four  or 
more,  there  must  be  the  two  special  top  and  bottom 
ones.  The  sets  of  trays  are  kept  from  floating  up,  or 
from  escape  of  water  on  the  bottom,  by  braces  across 
the  trough  or  by  weights.  In  cleaning  the  eggs  the 
trays  are  floated  up  and  one  tray  after  another  is  gone 
over.  They  should  be  picked  over  twice  a  week  until 
hatching  begins,  and  then  only  once  to  remove  shells 
and  pick  out  dead.  The  fry  can  be  kept  in  these  frames 
until  ready  to  take  food,  when  they  may  be  put  in  float- 
ing boxes  in  the  ponds  to  be  fed  or  may  be  turned  out. 

The  capacity  of  a  set  of  four  trays,  as  described,  is 
2,500  salmon  or  7,000  trout,  thus  increasing  the  hatch- 
ing capacity  of  a  trough  fourfold  and  holding  the  fry 
safely  until  the  smothering  period  has  passed.  The 


Trout  Breeding. 


«s 


embryo  fish  lie  quietly  on  these  frames  because  there  is 
but  little  light,  a  thing  they  avoid,  but  if  the  "rabbet" 
for  the  wire-cloth  is  deeper  than  one-sixteenth  of  an 
inch,  letting  the  wire  in  deeper,  there  will  always  be 
some  fry  on  top  of  the  frame  below  to  bother  by  escap- 
ing when  cleaning.  A  trough  full  of  these  trays  does 
not  show  up  much  "business"  to  a  visitor,  but  it  is  of 
use  when  the  hatchery  is  crowded. 

UNIMPREGNATED  EGGS  never  change  from  the  time 
they  are  taken  until  they  turn  white,  which  they  may 
do  at  any  time,  often  not  until  hatching  begins.  With  a 
microscope  I  can  see  the  change  in  a  trout  egg  at  three 
days  old  and  with  the  eye  at  ten  to  twenty  days,  accord- 


SMALLER  TOOLS  OF  THE  CRAFT. 

ing  to  temperature.  At  first  all  the  eggs  have  a  ring  at 
the  top ;  no  matter  if  it  is  rolled  over  the  ring  will  come 
up.  The  first  sign  of  impregnation  under  the  micro- 
scope is  a  division  of  the  yolk  into  halves  and  then 
quarters;  then  comes  the  "mulberry  mass,"  and  after- 
ward the  line  of  the  backbone  and  the  eyes.  But  the 
egg  with  no  fish  in  it,  if  it  has  not  turned  white,  holds 


86     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

its  ring,  and  when  the  eyes  appear  the  "ringers,"  as  we 
call  them,  can  be  picked  out  and  fed  to  the  yearlings ; 
and  they  are  very  fond  of  them.  If  eggs  are  packed 
for  shipment  all  ringers  should  be  picked  out,  as  they 
"die"  at  the  slightest  disturbance,  and  only  fertile  eggs 
should  be  sent. 


CHAPTER  V. 

CARE  OF  FRY. 

The  Century  Dictionary  defines  "fry"  as  "the  very 
young  of  a  fish."  In  that  sense  I  use  it.  Technically 
the  young  fish  is  an  embryo  while  in  the  egg  and  after 
bursting  the  shell  until  the  umbilicus  is  absorbed.  But 
I  have  declined  to  use  the  French  word  "alevin"  for 
the  hatched  embryo,  just  as  I  decline  to  use  the  Latin 
"ova"  for  eggs.  English  fishculturists  advertise  "eyed 
ova."  There's  a  mouthful !  What's  the  matter  with  a 
good  English  word  like  eggs?  I  would  as  soon  think 
of  asking  a  waiter  to  bring  me  "two  fried  ova"  as  of 
calling  fish  eggs  by  a  Latin  name  to  show  my  learning. 
Most  of  American  fishculturists  speak  of  "eggs  of  fish" 
and  call  embryo  trout  "fry"  until  the  sac  is  absorbed, 
when  they  are  "babies"  until  they  are  entitled  to  be 
termed  "yearlings." 

A  troutlet  which  bursts  the  shell  head  first  or  lets  any 
part  of  its  umbilical  sac  out  in  advance  is  a  poor,  weak 
critter  whose  shell  has  worn  thin  and  it  had  no  power  to 
burst  it.  Few  such  live.  A  strong,  healthy  embryo 
trout  rips  the  shell  open  with  its  tail  and  wiggles  about 


Trout  Breeding.  87 

with  head  and  sac  in  the  shell,  driving  it  here  and  there 
as  if  it  meant  business  until  the  shell  drops  away. 

In  trout  culture  the  hatching  is  a  simple  matter,  and 
one  that  is  easily  learned,  so  that  a  child  can  attend  to 
it ;  the  real  difficulty  for  a  novice  being  in  keeping  the 
young  fish  the  first  year  and  overcoming,  first,  the  dis- 
position of  half  of  them  to  die  without  apparent  cause 
or  provocation  during  the  nrst  three  months,  and,  sec- 
ondly, the  propensity  to  escape  through  an  unseen 
crack  or  a  defective  screen ;  but  the  second  season  all 
that  are  left  seem  to  thrive  well  and  to  be  contented 
with  their  confinement,  provided  a  gate  is  not  left  open 
for  them  to  get  into  the  stream,  and  even  then  they  are 
liable  to  return  at  the  spawning  time. 

A  newly  hatched  trout  would  never  be  classed  as  a 
young  trout  by  one  who  sees  it  for  the  first  time.  They 
look  like  small  threads  of  albumen,  which  have  great 
eyes,  and  attached  to  the  belly  is  the  great  yolk-sac, 
about  as  large  as  the  original  egg.  They  cannot  swim, 
but  move  about  on  the  bottom  in  an  apparently  aimless 
manner,  seeking  to  avoid  light.  In  the  brooks  they 
would  scatter  and  bury  themselves  in  the  gravel,  but  in 
the  troughs  they  huddle  and  crowd  in  corners  to  avoid 
the  light,  for  they  take  no  food  until  their  haversack, 
with  thirty  to  forty  days'  rations,  is  exhausted  and  their 
instinct  is  to  hide.  This  is  a  critical  time.  They  may 
pile  on  top  of  their  fellows  and  smother  the  bottom  ones. 
This  must  be  prevented.  Keep  the  upper  parts  of  the 
trough  darkened  with  covers  or  window  shades  and  let 
the  outlet  screens  be  in  the  light.  This  will  prevent 
them  from  squeezing  in  any  crack  about  the  screen  and 
dying  there,  or  of  .their  letting  tails  or  parts  of  sacs 
through  the  wire-cloth  and  perishing. 

The  crowding  is  worse  while  they  are  young  and  deli- 


88     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and 


cate,  say  for  the  first  fortnight,  and  I  have  put  stones 
and  bricks  in  the  troughs  to  induce  them  to  scatter.  But 
these  are  not  good  ;  some  will  wedge  their  heads  under 
them  and  die.  If  kept  dark  by  covers,  as  aforesaid,  for 
a  couple  of  weeks  they  will  come  out  right,  for  the 
crowding  is  merely  to  escape  light,  and  when  the  covers 
are  lifted  the  little  fellows  which  were  quiescent  begin 
to  scatter  to  find  a  dark  place.  Under  this  management 
the  strong  fellows  will  be  well  up  in  the  trough  and 
the  weaklings  and  deformities  will  be  sifted  out  by  the 
incessant  working  of  their  tails  to  keep  their  places  and 
will  be  found  about  the  foot  of  the  trough  ;  crooked 


5SSf^5S»#^'^'==Ss=:- 

^2xV    -        <.-„  -wr^t    s"    — ~^    —     ^a        *> 


To  PREVENT  FRY  FROM  CROWDING. — This  is  a  small  inner  frame 
to  place  in  the  trough.  BB,  outer  and  inner  troughs;  F, 
an  inner  projection  of  wood  or  tin;  W,  wire  cloth  through 
which  water  from  the  outside  flows.  By  W.  P.  Seal  in 
Forest  and  Stream,  Feb.  19,  1891.  The  fry  are  supposed  to 
gather  below  the  wire  cloth  W. 

tails,  double-headers  and  all  others  not  fitted  to  survive 
will  be  found  near  the  outlet. 

The  newly  hatched  trout  is  much  more  delicate  than 
the  egg  and  must  be  treated  accordingly.  Move  them, 
when  necessary,  by  pouring  water  on  them  or  by  mak- 
ing currents  with  a  feather,  but  don't  touch  them.  If 
you  wish  to  disturb  them  to  remove  the  dead  or  to  send 
them  toward  the  head  of  the  trough  take,  a  piece  of  half-- 
inch pine  board,  a  little  less  than  the  width  of  the  trough 
and  one  inch  less  than  its  depth ;  tack  a  strip  on  its 
upper  edge  to  rest  on  the  top  of  the  trough  and  slide  this 
down  the  trough  with  some  force.  The  water  will  rush 


Trout  Breeding.  89 

up  stream  and  carry  the  fry  with  it,  and  a  few  such 
movements  will  send  them  swirling  toward  the  head  of 
the  trough.  Delicate  as  they  are  to  the  rough  touch  of  a 
feather,  the  swirl  of  water  does  not  hurt  them ;  it  merely 
carries  them  with  it  and  they  come  in  contact  with  noth- 
ing but  water. 

A  trout  or  salmon,  newly  hatched,  is  a  beautiful  thing 
under  the  microscope.  The  circulation  of  blood  is 
shown  more  clearly  than  in  the  frog's  foot,  which  is  the 
standard  thing  to  use  in  school  work;  but  the  frog  is 
available  at  all  times.  Under  the  microscope  the  caudal 
heart  can  be  seen  up  to  the  fifth  day,  when  it  is  ab- 
sorbed. The  streams  of  blood  in  the  sac  seem  to  flow 
like  creeks,  now  dammed  by  a  lot  of  corpuscles  and 
then  breaking  away  and  flowing  on,  while  the  plexus  in 
the  tail  shows  the  capillaries  returning  the  arterial 
blood  to  the  veins  and  back  to  the  gills  for  oxygenation. 

The  loss  in  eggs  is  largely  due  to  the  lack  of  impreg- 
nation, although  some  few  embryos  die  after  the  eye- 
spots  show.  The  loss  after  hatching  and  before  feed- 
ing is  largely  from  malformations  and  weaklings  if 
there  has  been  no  smothering,  a  thing  which  the  expeit 
fishculturist  does  not  allow  to  happen,  because  his 
trained  eye  detects  the  first  sign  of  crowding  and  stops 
it.  But  as  all  this  is  not  written  for  the  expert,  but  for 
the  beginner,  all  these  dangers  are  mentioned.  If  the 
beginner  buys  20,000  eggs  from  a  reliable  dealer  he  is 
sure  that  each  egg  has  a  fish  in  it  when  the  lot  is  put  up. 
If  he  expects  that  he  will  hatch  and  rear  20,000  trout  he 
will  be  mistaken.  Why  should  he  expect  it  ?  He  can't 
raise  900  chickens  out  of  a  thousand  that  are  hatched, 
not  to  mention  those  which  died  in  the  egg,  He  can't 
average  nine  out  of  ten  colts,  calves  or  children  if  he  is 
doing  business  on  a  large  scale,  and  why  should  he  ex- 


90     Modern  Fishcultnre  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

pect  fish  to  be  an  exception  ?  Given  20,000  good  trout 
eggs,  with  the  eyes  to  be  seen  in  each  egg,  they  are 
about  fifty  days  old  and  are  due  to  hatch  in  ten  or 
twenty  days  more.  He  will  pick  out  500  white  eggs 
before  they  begin  to  hatch  and  500  more  in  dead  and 
deformed  embryos  that  never  could  live.  That  is  only 
5  per  cent,  loss  before  feeding,  and  is  very  low.  It  is 
more  likely  to  be  twice  that  number,  yet  there  is  no  fault 
to  be  found  with  the  seller  nor  with  the  receiver.  It  is 
the  natural  mortality  which  is  common  to  all  young 
animals.  It  is  part  of  nature's  scheme  in  animal  in- 
crease, and  no  man  can  improve  it. 

We  not  only  impregnate  more  eggs  than  is  possible  in 


EMBRYO  SALMON,  showing  yoke  sac  with  oil  globules  and 
veins,  also  the  embryonic  fin  with  indications  of  perma- 
nent fins. 

a  state  of  nature,  but  we  protect  both  Jggs  and  embryos 
until  the  little  fellows  are  ready  to  take  food,  a  period  of 
some  seventy  days  in  the  egg  and  of  at  least  thirty  more 
before  the  sac  is  absorbed.  This  nearly  covers  the  win- 
ter months  and  brings  our  proteges  up  to  the  time  when 
insect  life,  either  in  perfect  form  or  larvae,  is  stirring  in 
the  spring  and  affording  food  for  the  baby  trout  which, 
having  absorbed  its  yolk-sac,  is  swimming  clear  of  the 
bottom,  heading  up-stream  and  examining  every  tiny 
bit  that  floats  down.  It  takes  a  morsel  in  its  mouth, 


'  Trout  Breeding.  91 

throws  it  out  and  settles  down  on  the  bottom  to  rest,  its 
curiosity  having  been  satisfied. 

Take  up  one  now  in.  a  glass  tube  and  note  that  the 
embryonic  fin  which  ran  from  the  insertion  of  the  Dorsal 
fin  around  the  tail  to  the  anal  fin,  like  the  fin  of  an  eel, 
has  been  absorbed  and  the  permanent  fins  are  developed. 
The  sac  which  seemed  to  be  absorbed  appears  like  a  bit 
of  amber  in  the  cleft  abdomen,  as  though  the  fish  were 
about  to  split  open.  The  sac  is  almost  absorbed  and  the 
walls  of  the  abdomen  will  join  together  over  it  and  the 
embryo  will  be  a  trout  in  a  few  days.  Yet  it  will  take 
food  by  the  mouth  before  the  sac  is  fully  absorbed,  and 
a  proof  of  this  is  not  in  its  seizing  floating  particles,  but 
in  its  passing  of  ordure.  Nothing  passes  the  embryo 
trout  while  subsisting  on  its  sac ;  the  yolk  is  pure  nutri- 
ment, with  no  waste,  but  when  it  begins  to  feed  with  its 
mouth  there  is  a  waste  which  is  common  to  all  animals 
after  leaving  the  embryo  stage,  and  the  troughs  must  be 
feathered  down  every  day. 

The  fish  with  curled  tails  cannot  be  helped.  They 
cannot  swim  and  must  spin  around  in  one  direction,  and, 
being  unable  to  seek  food,  must  die.  The  "double 
headers"  occur  in  many  shapes,  from  two  and  even 
three  heads  to  fish  merely  joined  at  the  tail,  and  even 
"twins,"  which  were  two  apparently  perfect  and  dis- 
tinct fish,  but  with  only  one  umbilical  sac  between  them. 
1  have  tried  to  rear  thousands  of  these  monstrosities  and 
have  had  them  take  food  with  both  heads  for  several 
days  and  then  find  them  dead  some  morning.  The 
salmon  and  trout  seem  to  be  more  given  to  producing 
monstrosities  than  any  other  fishes  on  my  visiting  list. 

A  little  salt  is  good  to  sprinkle  at  the  head  of  the 
trough  occasionally  if  there  is  a  sign  of  fungus  from  fin 
or  tail  nibbling. 


92     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

FEEDING  FRY. 

The  time  of  absorbing  the  sac  we  roughly  state  at 
about  thirty  days,  but  it  varies  according  to  tempera- 
ture. Those  hatching  about  February  ist,  in  cold 
water,  are  longer  in  absorbing  it  than  those  coming  out 
a  month  later,  especially  if  warm  rains  come  on.  From 
twenty-five  to  forty  days  would  be  more  accurate. 

When  nearly  ready  to  take  food  they  head  up-stream, 
and  the  strongest  will  be  at  the  inflow.  They  will 
crowd  in  a  corner  if  there  is  an  eddy  there,  and  some 
may  try  to  jump  up  the  incoming  stream  and  land  on 
the  floor.  To  remedy  this  make  a  little  box,  about  6x9 
inches  and  5  deep,  with  a  bottom  of  fine  wire-cloth  or 
perforated  tin,  and  hang  it  so  that  the  water  pours  into 
it,  the  bottom  being  a  couple  of  inches  below  the  sur- 
face. Such  a  box  is  good  to  put  in  when  hatching 
begins,  as  it  catches  all  insects  and  crustaceans  which 
might  injure  the  fry.  Now  it  will  distribute  the  inflow 
through  small  holes  and  prevent  jumping  out. 

When  they  begin  to  rise  and  examine  small  floating 
objects  care  must  be  taken  that  the  trough  is  not  over- 
crowded, for  if  they  are  crowded  they  will  soon  nibble 
fins  and  tails,  even  though  food  is  plenty.  They  seem 
to  do  this  from  irritability  at  being  crowded  and  nip  at 
a  tail  as  if  to  say :  "Get  out  of  my  way."  When  a  tail 
or  pectoral  fin  has  been  nibbled  it  turns  white,  is  mis- 
taken for  food  and  is  picked  at  until  fungus  sets  in  and 
the  troutlet  dies.  In  a  trough  10  feet  by  14  inches,  with 


Trout  Breeding.  93 

water  6  inches  deep,  7,000  trout  fry  are  quite  enough  to 
feed.  If  the  trough  is  14  feet  long  10,000  may  be  re- 
tained. The  remainder,  if  any,  should  be  placed  in 
other  troughs  or  in  floating  boxes  in  the  ponds.  For 
description  of  these  boxes  see  the  chapter  on  shad. 

To  feed  the  fish  which  we  should  have  from  10,000 
eggs  take  a  piece  of  beef  liver  as  large  as  a  hickory  nut 
and  scrape  it  with  a  sharp  knife  until  only  fibre  is  left ; 
take  the  scrapings  and  pass  all  of  it  that  will  go  through 
a  screen  of  about  twenty  wires  to  the  inch  by  rubbing 
and  pressing  it  with  a  flat  piece  of  shingle  and  scraping 
it  off  the  under  side.  Place  this  on  a  board  and  add  a 
few  drops  of  water  to  make  a  thin  paste,  and  then  drop 
in  a  little  at  a  time,  taking  care  not  to  feed  more  than 
they  will  eat,  in  order  not  to  foul  the  trough.  It  may 
be  flicked  from  a  knife  blade  down  the  trough.  My  fa- 
vorite is  a  "knife"  made  of  hard  wood,  something  like  a 
paper  cutter.  Watch  them  and  see  if  they  take  it.  Feed 
carefully  all  down  the  trough.  The  motion  of  their 
tails  will  now  send  most  of  the  waste  to  the. foot  of  the 
trough,  yet  it  should  be  feathered  as  before. 

In  a  few  days  their  appetites  will  increase  greatly, 
and  it  is  better  to  feed  little  and  often  than  to  try  to  give 
a  big  feed  twice  a  day.  I  would  not  recommend  any 
person  to  undertake  to  raise  young  trout  by  artificial 
feeding  in  troughs  or  boxes  for  the  first  three  months 
unless  they  can  feed  them  every  hour.  The  appetite  of 
the  juvenile  trout  is  as  frequently  intermittent  as  that  of 
other  young  animals,  and  requires  one  to  stand  over 
them  almost  constantly. 

When  I  began  trout  culture  (1868)  the  only  book  on 
the  subject  was  " American  Fishculture,"  by  Norris, 
published  in  that  year  and  now  out  of  print.  It  con- 
tained all  that  was  then  known,  which  was  but  little, 


94     Modern  Fishcidture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

Norris  speaks  of  different  kinds  of  food  for  fry,  such 
as  "Liver  or  lean  meat,  boiled  hard  and  grated ;  the 
yolks  of  eggs,  boiled  hard  and  reduced  almost  to  a  pow- 
der; raw  liver,  chopped  fine  with  a  long  sharp  knife; 
fresh  or  coagulated  blood;  fresh  shad  or  herring  roe, 
raw  or  boiled;  thick  milk  or  bonnyclabber  and  curds." 

I  had  an  experience  in  trying  most  of  these  things. 
Mr.  Stephen  H.  Ainsworth,  the  first  man  to  breed  trout 
in  the  State  of  New  York,  cautioned  me  not  to  over- 
feed the  fry.  I  had  taken  some  50,000  eggs  from  wild 
trout  in  my  first  year's  work  and  had  bought  20,000 
more,  and  my  few  troughs  were  full.  My  loss  in  un- 
impregnated  eggs  was  great,  for  I  had  no  instructor.  I 
had  about  35,000  fry.  I  must  try  different  foods  and 
observe  their  effect,  being  careful  not  to  feed  too  much. 

The  boiled  egg  was  a  failure.  It  dissolved  and 
spread  over  the  gravel  and  grew  fungus ;  the  fry  were 
all  head  and  no  body,  looking  snaky.  The  curd  acted 
the  same  way;  clotted  blood  was  worse.  All  these 
troughs  must  be  cleaned  if  the  fish  were  to  be  saved,  and 
a  vile  mess  that  gravel  was.  The  grated  boiled  beef 
was  not  so  foul,  but  the  fish  were  evidently  starving. 
Although  a  novice,  I  could  see  that.  Those  fed  on 
fresh  liver  were  doing  well  comparatively,  but  were 
slim  and  "all  head."  I  changed  to  liver  in  all  the 
troughs  and  some  fish  began  to  pick  up,  but  thousands 
died.  I  caught  a  few  "wild"  ones  that  had  either 
escaped  from  my  troughs  or  been  naturally  spawned, 
and  their  deep  bodies,  broad  backs  and  relatively  small 
heads  showed  that  my  fish  were  not  well  fed  and  were 
just  kept  alive.  "Why,"  I  asked  myself,  "should  a 
young  trout  be  restricted  in  its  food  ?  Surely  it  gets  all 
it  wants  when  wild."  Then  I  fed  them  all  they  would 
eat  every  half  hour,  and  could  see  them  pick  up,  but 


Trout  Breeding.  95 

they  never  made  thrifty  fish.  I  saved  some  n,ooo  to 
live  through  May,  but  I  knew  more  about  feeding  trout 
than  when  I  began. 

Along  the  Massachusetts  coast  the  trout  breeders 
feed  the  eggs  of  haddock  to  the  fry  and  get  good  results. 
Shad  eggs,  named  by  Norris,  come  too  late  to  be  of  use. 
I've  mixed  cream  with  liver  to  keep  it  floating  longer, 
but  don't  care  for  it.  Bellies  of  soft  clams,  Mya  are- 
naria,  the  "maninose,"  have  been  used  by  me  with  good 
results,  but  beef  liver  is  the  best  food  for  trout  and 
salmon  fry  in  the  troughs  that  I  know  of.  Make  it 
fine  at  first,  coarser  as  they  grow,  and  crowd  it  to  them. 

During  late  years  I  have  used  the  sausage  chopper 
of  the  Enterprise  Manufacturing  Company,  of  Phila- 
delphia, with  good  results  in  labor  saving ;  but  two  new 
plates  were  made  with  holes  one-eighth  and  one-six- 
teenth of  an  inch,  as  the  smallest  holes  in  the  plates  that 
come  with  the  chopper  are  one-quarter  of  an  inch.  The 
plate  with  smallest  holes  was  used  until  the  babies  could 
take  larger  particles.  Yet  after  passing  this  chopper 
the  food  must  be  sifted,  as  described,  because  no  fibre 
must  be  fed,  as  it  passes  undigested  and  is  seen  as  a 
long  white  string  hanging  from  the  fish,  and  is  trouble- 
some to  pass.  It  may  cause  inflammation  and  death. 
The  Enterprise  chopper  is  a  great  improvement  on  the 
one  in  use  years  ago  and  figured  by  Mr.  Stone  as  "Star- 
ret's  American  chopping  machine,"  which  had  a  verti- 
cal knife  worked  by  a  "walking-beam"  in  a  revolving 
cylinder,  because  the  meat  must  pass  through  holes  of 
a  certain  size.  It  is  the  best  chopper  on  the  market. 

Milk  and  cream  have  been  used  as  food  for  the  fry, 
but  they  are  not  complete  and  wholesome,  and  under  my 
feeding  produced  great  mortality.  Shreds  of  beef, 
brains  and  the  spleen,  or  "milt,"  as  butchers  call  it,  an? 


96    Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

all  good  foods  if  cut  or  scraped  and  passed  through  the 
sieve,  which  should  be  changed  to  a  larger  mesh  as  the 
fish  grow ;  the  soft  part  of  clams  and  eggs  of  other  fish 
make  excellent  food  for  the  very  young  trout,  but  the 
eggs  of  hens  will  make  filthy  troughs  on  account  of  so 
much  of  the  yolk  becoming  dissolved  and  settling  to  the 
bottom,  and  there  decaying. 

On  Long  Island  I  found  the  bellies  of  soft  clams  quite 
good,  but  returned  to  beef  liver.  As  the  suckers  spawn 
in  early  spring,  their  eggs  should  be  good  food  for 
baby  trout,  as  I  know  that  the  flesh  of  suckers  is  for 
adults. 

The  food  of  the  very  young  wild  trout  consists  of  the 
newly  hatched  larvae  of  water-breeding  insects  and  the 
young  of  the  smaller  fresh  water  Crustacea,  food  that 
we  have  no  way  of  supplying  in  quantity,  and  my  own 
experiments,  with  half  a  dozen  barrels  of  rainwater,  to 
breed  "wigglers"  (the  larvae  of  mosquitoes)  were  suc- 
cessful as  far  as  producing  good  food  for  the  fry  went ; 
but  as  it  took  them  about  five  or  six  days  to  grow,  only 
one  barrel  could  be  strained  each  day,  and  the  produc- 
tion was  only  equal  to  the  demands  of  a  few  hundred 
fry,  so  that  to  carry  it  out  on  a  scale  sufficient  to  feed 
50,000  would  have  made  an  imposing  array  of  barrels 
and  involved  great  labor  and  expense.  The  beauty  of 
this  kind  of  food  is  that  it  keeps  until  used,  as  well  as 
being  most  suitable  and  wholesome. 

Mr.  Charles  Hoxsie  devised  an  automatic  feeder  for 
trout  fry,  intended  to  dispense  with  hand  labor.  An 
underflow  wheel  of  10  or  12  inches  diameter  was  put 
in  the  distributing  trough  and  a  crank  of  i  inch  moved 
a  §  strip  which  was  suspended  by  cords  over  the  heads 
of  the  troughs  and  gave  it  a  2-inch  reciprocal  move- 
ment parallel  to  the  distributing  trough — a  wire  would 


Trout  Breeding.  97 

do  as  well  and  would  not  buckle  as  my  rod  did  if  there 
was  any  obstruction.  A  tumbler  rested  on  a  strip  at  the 
head  of  each  trough,  and  in  the  bottom  of  it  was  bored 
a  J-inch  hole ;  in  this  hole  worked  in  and  out  a  bit  of 
wood,  about  half  the  diameter  of  the  hole,  attached  to 
the  rod- by  an  arm.  The  tumblers  were  filled  with  food 
wet  to  the  proper  consistency ;  the  wheel  revolved ;  the 
long  rod  worked  back  and  forth,  forcing  the  wooden 
pins  in  and  out  of  the  tumblers  and  dropping  the  food 
automatically.  I  put  one  in  the  hatchery  at  Cold  Spring 
Harbor,  N.  Y.,  but  found  that  it  required  constant  at- 
tention to  see  that  the  tumblers  were  not  clogged  and 
that  their  contents  were  fluid  enough  but  not  too  fluid. 
In  theory  the  thing  was  perfect.  In  practice  the  water 
settled  to  the  bottom  and  went  out  first,  and  when  it 
was  gone  the  liver  would  not  flow ;  it  remained  in  a 
solid  mass  and  formed  an  arch  above  the  wooden  pin, 
which  tried  to  do  its  duty  but  could  not. 

Such  experiments  are  of  value,  even  if  the  results 
are  failures,  for  they  show  us  what  to  avoid.  Mr.  Hox- 
sie  looked  after  his  own  trout  and  had  comparatively 
few.  I  had  more,  and,  working  for  the  State,  it  was 
desirable  to  produce  the  best  results  without  too  great 
regard  for  expense,  and  so  I  went  back  to  hand-feeding 
with  brains  behind  it.  I  had  a  man,  Foster  Van  Aus- 
dall,  who  was  the  most  persistent  trout-feeder  I  ever 
knew,  and — I  am  glad  to  say  so  out  loud — he  loved  to 
see  trout  feed,  either  old  or  young,  and  he  was  on  his 
feet  all  day  feeding.  When  he  came  to  the  lower  end 
of  the  last  trough  he  would  begin  at  the  head  of  the 
first  again,  and  so  he  went  the  rounds  day  by  day  while 
the  other  men  were  on  the  road  with  trout  for  stocking 
public  waters.  He  loved  his  work,  and  the  trout 
showed  it. 


98     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 


HOW  OTHERS  FEED  FRY. 

The  late  Sir  James  Maitland,  Bart.,  had  a  large  breed- 
ing establishment  at-  Howietoun,  near  Sterling,  Scot- 
land, and  made  it  a  commercial  success.  In  a  pamph- 
let "On  Stocking  Rivers,  Streams,  Lakes  and  Reser- 
voirs with  Salmonidae,"  published  by  his  secretary,  Mr. 
J.  R.  Guy,  Sterling,  N.  B.,  1892,  Mr.  Maitland  tells 
how  to  feed  fry.  While  I  do  not  agree  with  his  views, 
they  are  quoted  because  he  had  an  extensive  experi- 
ence, and  therefore  would  consider  that  his  ideas  are 
as  good  as  mine,  if  not  better.  He  says : 

"The  best  and  most  economical  food  for  trout  fry 
costs  about  is.  4d.  per  pound  (nearly  32  cents) — that 
is  to  say,  one  pound  of  this  paste  goes  further,  and  pro- 
duces much  better  results,  than  sixteen  pounds  of  liver, 
because  it  is  more  nourishing  and  there  is  no  waste. 
The  food  is  prepared  by  weighing  several  pounds  of 
fillet  of  beef — not  beefsteak,  which  is  too  stringy,  nor 
a  piece  off  the  sirloin,  which  is  generally  too  fat.  Fillet 
of  horse  is  equally  suitable  with  fillet  of  beef,  and  sir- 
loin of  horse,  being  generally  very  lean,  is  nearly  as 
good.  .  .  .  Mutton  is  not  suitable.  All  the  fat 
being  carefully  scraped  off,  and  the  meat  weighed,  it  is 
pounded  in  a  large  marble  mortar  and  passed  through 
a  coarse  sieve.  The  yolks  of  hard-boiled  eggs  are  then 
added,  nine  eggs  being  allowed  to  each  pound  of  meat. 
The  eggs  should  be  several  days  old,  as,  if  new-laid,  it 
is  impossible  to  boil  the  yolk  until  it  is  mealy.  .  .  . 
When  the  yolks  of  eggs  and  meat  have  been  thoroughly 
mixed  in  the  mortar  they  are  passed  through  a  fine  wire 
sieve  and  kneaded  into  a  stiff  paste.  This  is  rolled  into 
the  shape  of  a  thick  sausage  and  cut  and  rolled  into 


Trout  Breeding.  99 

large  pills,  each  sufficient  to  give  one  meal  to  five  boxes. 
.  .  .  When  the  food  is  all  prepared  it  is  taken  to 
the  hatching-house  and  one  pill  placed  on  the  edge  of 
the  fifth  box  in  each  row.  One  of  the  girls  then  goes 
round  with  a  feeding  spoon,  and,  beginning  at  the  bot- 
tom box,  presses  the  food  through  the  perforated  zinc 
of  the  feeding  spoon,  which  reduces  it  into  fine  vermi- 
celli. When  the  threads  are  about  two  inches  long 
they  are  shaken  off  into  the  water.  .  .  ." 

In  1891  I  sent  circulars  to  several  trout  breeders 
asking  a  few  questions.  They  were :  "3.  On  what  do 
you  feed  the  fry  for  the  first  three  months,  and  how?" 
"4.  What  do  you  consider  to  be  a  fair  percentage  of  fry 
brought  through  the  first  six  months,  reckoning  from 
the  time  of  their  first  taking  food?"  "5.  Do  you  feed 
fry  in  hatching  troughs ?  If  so,  how  long?"  Here  are 
some  answers : 

Charles  G.  Atkins,  Superintendent  of  Salmon  Hatch- 
ing Station,  U.  S.  F.  C,  East  Orland,  Me. — "3.  In 
troughs  on  chopped  liver  for  one  month  or  six  weeks, 
then  part  on  same  food  and  part  on  maggots ;  majority 
on  maggots  this  year.  From  July  15  to  30,  1891,  have 
fed  about  200,000  on  maggots.  4.  Sixty  per  cent.; 
but  we  have  done  much  better.  In  1889,  out  of  109,- 
965  Atlantic  salmon  eggs,  counted  in  winter  and  early 
spring,  we  saved  until  the  next  October  91,856,  or  83 
per  cent.,  actual  count  at  start  and  finish;  that  is  my 
very  best.  5.  All  summer  and  fall,  sometimes  through 
the  winter." 

E.  M.  Robinson,  Superintendent  U.  S.  F.  C.,  Mam- 
moth Springs,  Ark. — "3.  Beef  liver,  but  don't  approve 
it.  4.  Seventy-five  per  cent.  5.  No;  we  use  ditches 
5  feet  wide,  15  to  20  feet  long,  and  shaded  half  way 
the  length." 


IOO     Modern  Fishculturc  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

E.  F.  Boehtn,  Superintendent  N.  Y.  F.  C,  Sacandaga 
Station. — "3.  Do  not  feed  fry  here;  can't  get  food.  4. 
Seventy-five  per  cent." 

C.  S.  White,  Romney,  W.  Va.,  Fish  Commissioner. — 
''3.  Milk  in  forms  of  clabber  and  curd,  eggs,  liver, 
lights,  corn-bread  and  fish  roe,  fed  upon  sods,  which 
are  removed  every  three  or  four  days.  4.  Fifty  per 
cent.,  averaging  year  by  year.  5.  About  three  weeks." 

[I  am  not  sure  but  Mr.  White  mistook  the  questions 
to  mean  adult  trout. — F.  M.] 

Dr.  R.  O.  Sweeny,  Superintendent  U.  S.  F.  C.,  Du- 
luth,  Minn. — "3.  Finely  grated  fresh,  sweet  livers, 
mixed  with  thick,  sour  curd  of  milk,  of  the  consist- 
ency of  paste,  of  such  gravity  and  consistence  as  will 
drop  from  a  spoon  and  sink  to  bottom  of  trough  in  a 
lump.  4.  I  think  I  can  honestly  say  that  the  shrinkage 
is  not  over  10  per  cent.  5.  Have  held  them  till  August 
in  the  troughs,  but  they  must  not  be  crowded'or  there 
will  be  cannibalism." 

George  T.  Mills,  Commissioner  for  Nevada. — "3. 
Liver,  boiled ;  when  cool,  grated  in  the  trough ;  sour 
milk  occasionally.  4.  In  State  hatchery,  90  per  cent. ; 
we  do  not  keep  fry  longer  than  three  months." 

Albert  Rackow,  Elmont,  N.  Y.,  private  ponds. — "3. 
Beef  hearts  and  minnows.  4.  I  lost  seven  out  of  10,- 
ooo.  5.  I  feed  in  troughs  6x12  feet  and  8x24  feet." 
[See  question  No.  3.] 

W.  F.  Page,  Superintendent  U.  S.  F.  C.,  Neosho, 
Mo. — "3.  Raw  beef  liver  until  ij  inches  long,  which 
they  get  to  be  here  in  five  weeks  after  taking  food; 
then  gradually  mix  mush  of  ship-stuff  with  liver.  4. 
Eighty  per  cent.  5.  Yes,  about  five  weeks." 

J.  W.  Hoxsie  &  Co.,  private  ponds,  Carolina,  R.  I. — 


Trout  B/teding.  101 

"3.  Pulp  of  sheep  livers.  4.  Eighty  per  cent.  5.  Feed 
in  troughs  to  six  or  eight  weeks." 

W,  L.  Gilbert,  Old  Colony  Trout  Ponds,  Plymouth, 
Mass. — "3.  Sheep  livers.  4.  Forty  per  cent.  5.  Don't 
feed  in  hatching  troughs*'' 

Just  before  going  to  press  these  questions  and  an- 
swers were  returned  to  the  writers  for  correction  after 
eight  more  years'  experience,  but  none  of  them  made 
any.  A  letter  from  Mr.  G.  Hansen,  Osceola,  Wis., 
March  26,  1899,  says:  "I  feed  fry  up  to  one  year  old 
on  beef  liver  and  milk  curd,  mixed  in  the  proportion  of 
two  parts  liver  to  one  of  curd.  I  feed  in  troughs  from 
February  to  May,  sometimes  until  September,  with 
good  success,  but  prefer  putting  them  in  a  nursery  pond 
in  May.  The  green  slime,  algae,  bothers  me  some  in 
the  hatching  house  by  clogging  screens,  therefore  I  re- 
move the  fry.  The  wild  fish  give  the  best  eggs/' 


COMMENTS  ON  THE  METHODS  OF  FEEDING. 

As  a  summing  up  of  this  question  of  feeding  fry, 
let  me  say :  There  is  nothing  better  than  liver  of  beef, 
or  perhaps  other  animals,  from  the  start.  Maggots  are 
as  good  after  the  fish  get  big  enough  to  swallow  a  full- 
grown  one,  and  they  do  not  drop  until  they  are  full 
grown.  Trout  in  nature  do  not  eat  vegetable  food,  and 
while  curd  may  be  of  value,  I  don't  take  a  cent's  worth 
of  stock  in  any  admixture  of  vegetable  matter.  Under 
my  management  of  the  New  York  hatchery  on  Long 
Island,  the  yearling  trout,  at  twelve  months  old,  meas- 
ured from  six  to  nine  inches.  No  hatchery  in  the  State 
could  show  such  trout.  This  was  partly  owing  to 
crowding  the  food  to  them  and  partly  to  the  tempera- 


102      hl-ovi&iiftsfacttfture'in  fresh  and  Suit  Water. 


ture  of  the  water.  Such  results  might  be  obtained  in 
places  as  far,  or  farther,  south,  but  never  in  the  colder 
waters  of  the  mainland  of  New  York. 

You  cannot  overfeed  a  young  trout,  nor  offer  it  suit- 
able food  too  often,  and  upon  its  growth  during  its  first 
few  weeks  of  feeding  depends  its  future  development. 
Once  a  dwarf  always  a  dwarf  ;  and  the  fry  need  to  be 
kept  growing  from  the  start,  like  pigs,  or  they  will 
never  catch  up  to  their  better  fed  fellows. 

Many  fishculturists  say,  as  Mr.  Hansen  does  :  "The 
wild  fish  give  the  best  eggs."  Then  there  is  a  fault  in 
over  or  under  feeding  at  the  breeding  season.  Fish 
properly  fed  in  ponds  should,  like  other  domestic  ani- 
mals, improve  in  fecundity  and  early  maturity. 


INTRODUCING  NEW  BLOOD. 

This  is  a  good  thing  in  the  breeding  of  cattle  or 
fowls,  but  is  not  necessary  with  trout.  With  fowls 
and  the  cattle  on  the  farm  there  is  danger  of  in-breed- 
ing because  the  parents  are  so  few,  especially  the  sires. 
There  was  no  such  danger  among  the  herds  of  buffalo 
and  there  is  none  among  the  trout  in  confinement.  Take 
the  eggs  from  2,000  fish  and  fertilize  them  with  the 
milt  of  1,000  males;  turn  the  progeny  loose  and  breed 
from  them  two  years  later,  and  what  are  the  chances  of 
mating  brother  and  sister?  Even  if  this  should  hap- 
pen, as  it  may,  the  same  thing  is  purposely  done  by 
breeders  of  horses  and  cattle  who  are  trying  to  pro- 
duce the  best  stock. 

It  was  my  policy  to  keep  the  thriftiest  fish  for  breed- 
ers, and  in  the  twelve  years  that  I  ran  the  Long  Island 
hatchery  the  yearling  trout  increased  from  a  maximum 


Trout  Breeding.  103 

length  of  six  to  nine  inches.  That  shows  what  breed- 
ing from  the  best  will  do  in  a  short  time.  If  you  have 
two  or  three  thousand  spawners  you  need  not  fear  de- 
generation from  in-breeding.  You  have  few  chances 
of  in-breeding.  Suppose  that  six  thousand  persons, 
equally  divided  as  to  sex,  settle  on  a  fertile  island. 
There  is  no  chance  for  extensive  in-breeding.  Keep 
your  own  stock ;  breed  from  the  best  quick-growing 
stock,  and  keep  out  all  outside  wild  blood  as  you  would 
keep  out  blood  from  the  wild  boar  among  your  im- 
proved pigs,  and  go  on  and  develop  a  breed  of  trout 
that  will  be  as  far  above  their  wild  fellows  as  a  setter 
is  above  a  wolf. 

If,  however,  you  think  you  need  new  blood,  don't 
get  it  from  wild  trout,  but  from  some  other  trout 
breeder;  exchange  males  with  him  as  you  would  swap 
"roosters"  with  a  neighbor. 

The  breed  of  trout  can  never  be  improved  by  revert- 
ing to  wild  stock.  That  fallacy  has  retarded  trout  cul- 
ture many  years.  If  your  pond  trout  do  not  breed 
freely  it  is  evident  that  you  are  not  giving  them  the 
best  treatment,  either  in  food,  flow  of  water,  or  some- 
thing else  that  they  lack. 


GROWTH  OF  FRY. 

Our  trout  on  Long  Island  were  a  wonder  to  the  men 
from  other  hatcheries — five  to  six  inches  in  October  and 
seven  to  nine  inches  at  less  than  a  year  old — but  the 
warmer  waters  of  Long  Island  had  something  to  do 
with  this  growth.  No  amount  of  food  would  produce 
such  fish  in  the  cold  waters  of  the  Adirondacks.  A 
man  who  had  a  great  reputation  as  a  fishculturist  about 


104     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

the  time  I  began  told  me  that  "water  is  never  too  cold 
for  a  trout,  nor  too  warm  for  a  sucker."  He  was  wrong 
about  trout,  for  they  will  develop  faster  in  a  tempera- 
ture of  65°  Fahr.  than  in  one  ten  degrees  lower;  their 
life  is  more  active  and  their  digestions  are  consequently 
quicker,  hence  their  growth  is  greater. 

In  its  most  southern  habitat  our  brook  trout  excels 
its  more  northern  kinsman,  if  food  is  equally  plenty  in 
both  cases  and  if  there  is  some  depth  to  the  water,  for 
trout  in  mountain  streams  never  grow  large. 


AUTOMATIC  FEEDERS. 

An  automatic  feeder  would  be  a  desirable  thing,  but 
a  perfect  one  has  not  yet  been  found.  When  in  charge 
of  the  American  fishcultural  display  at  the  World's 
Fisheries  Exhibition  in  Berlin,  in  1880,  I  saw  a  Ger- 
man device  to  lift  a  gate  and  let  out  food  at  intervals, 
regulated  by  a  water-wTheel,  but  it  dropped  it  all  at  the 
head  of  the  trough,  where  the  strongest  fish  got  the 
first  whack  at  it  and  grew  stronger  and  more  able  to 
sustain  their  advantage.  Then  there  was  an  arm  on  a 
universal  joint  which  dipped  a  spoon  into  the  food, 
carried  it  over  the  trough  and  spilled  it. 

All  these  things  are  useless ;  it  is  the  small  fellows 
down  at  the  lower  end  which  need  to  be  fed  as  well  as 
the  others ;  neglect  of  them  means  death  or  a  stunted 
lot  of  yearlings.  The  fish  in  a  trough  must  have  an 
equal  chance  to  get  food,  and  any  feeder  which  only 
feeds  at  the  head  of  the  trough  is  good  for  nothing. 
There  is  nothing  like  an  intelligent  man  to  do  this 
work  and  to  see  fair  play  in  all  parts  of  a  pond  or 
trough. 


Trout  Breeding.  105 


PUTTING  OUT  THE  BABIES. 

In  May  the  little  fish  should  be  put  out  in  the  sun- 
light and  fed  there.  My  rearing  ponds  were  of  yellow 
pine  plank,  250  feet  long,  3  feet  wide  and  3  feet  deep, 
with  water  2  feet  deep,  made  of  2-inch  plank  on  sides 
and  i -inch  on  bottom,  nailed  to  outside  frames.  This 
stretch  was  divided  into  six  compartments  by  double 
screens  of  No.  8  wire-cloth,  18  inches  apart,  with  a 
dam  between  the  screens  that  was  i  inch  higher  than 
the  pool  below.  If  fish  passed  one  screen  they  might 
be  dipped  out  before  passing  the  next  one,  for  the  little 
fellows  will  get  through  a  crack  if  there  is  one.  The 
screens  were  to  prevent  crowding  in  any  part  of  the 
long  rearing  pond  and  to  facilitate  feeding.  The  fish 
in  the  upper  pool  fared  best,  for  in  addition  to  liver 
they  had  the  first  pick  of  the  small  crustaceans  which 
came  in  from  the  reservoir. 

As  the  flow  through  these  pools  was  about  600  gal- 
lons per  minute,  it  was  too  strong  for  the  little  fellows 
all  the  time,  and  in  a  straight-away  run  a  tired  trout 
would  be  washed  against  the  lower  screen  and  die 
there.  To  prevent  this  there  was  a  series  of  obstruc- 
tions put  in,  which  created  eddies  of  rest  for  the  weary. 
These  were  either  alternate  projections  from  the  sides, 
as  in  some  fishways,'  or  with  dams  clear  across,  but 
with  the  top  two  inches  below  the  surface ;  four  inches 
below  this  was  a  dam  extending  from  above  the  surface 
to  six  inches  below  it.  This  arrangement  caused  the 
water  to  flow  up  from  the  bottom,  over  the  dam  and 
to  the  bottom  again,  leaving  comparatively  still  water 
in  the  upper  part,  and  after  stemming  the  strong  bot- 
tom current  for  a  while  a  fish  could  find  rest  above ;  it 


106     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 


also  kept  food  swirling  around,  for  there  were  eddies 
and  not  a  straight  flow,  and  it  also  kept  the  bottom 
clean.  In  the  ten  "baby  ponds"  of  24  feet  long,  as  de- 
scribed, we  put  8,000  to  10,000  babies  in  the  upper 


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ones,  leaving  the  three  or  four  lower  ones  empty,  but 
screened.  The  little  fellows  would  get  into  these 
through  cracks  in  the  planks,  loose  screens  or  other 


Trout  Breeding.  107 

apertures,  and  then  we  would  net  them  out  and  put 
them  in  the  ponds  above,  for  down  stream  were  their 
yearling  brothers,  who  would  take  them  in  out  of  the 
wet  with  pleasure. 

In  July  they  need  assorting  in  order  to  keep  the  larg- 
est together,  so  that  the  smallest  will  have  a  chance  to 
get  their  share  of  food,  and  the  sorting  should  be  done 
every  six  or  eight  weeks. 

In  September  they  are  down  into  the  yearling  ponds 
and  the  yearlings  let  into  the  upper  breeding  pond,  for 
we  may  get  a  few  small  eggs  from  some,  which  in  No- 
vember are  twenty  months  old,  counting  from  March 
of  the  year  before. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

STREAMS. 

<«. 

As  a  rule  a  stream  has  to  be  taken  as  we  find  it,  but 
often  it  can  be  improved  for  trout  breeding  or  for  fish- 
ing. If  possible,  make  it  more  crooked,  with  deep 
pools,  fallen  logs  for  hiding  places  and  shade,  culti- 
vate alders  or  willows  along  the  banks  for  shade  and  in- 
sect harbors,  and,  in  fact,  make  as  wild  a  stream  of  it, 
and  one  as  difficult  to  fish,  as  it  is  possible,  and  you 
have  done  all  that  can  be  done  to  better  it.  Shade  is 
loved  by  trout  and  it  also  keeps  the  waters  cool. 

If  you  contemplate  draining  a  swamp  where  cool 
springs  trickle  all  over,  and  think  of  making  a  trout 
stream  of  the  collected  waters,  the  farther  you  can  get 
from  a  straight  line  the  better.  Nature  always  works 


io8     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

to  destroy  straight  lines,  and  no  natural  stream  ever 
ran  straight ;  even  if  water  is  fond  of  making  a  short- 
cut, it  is  still  fonder  of  following  the  line  of  least  re- 
sistance, and  will  dig  out  soft  banks  and  make  curves. 

If  the  banks  are  equally  soft  in  a  straight  ditch  where 
there  is  a  good  flow,  the  water  will  dig  in  at  one  side, 
rebound  to  the  other,  and  so  go  back  and  forth  until,  if 
let  alone,  the  stream  will  crook.  See  any  natural 
stream  coming  down  a  level  meadow — it  is  crooked. 

A  trout  does  not  love  a  sweeping,  continuous  cur-- 
rent in  a  straight  stream,  but  prefers  pools,  shallows, 
rapids,  and  all  the  variations  which  occur  in  natural 
streams,  where  it  can  exercise  in  the  rapids  or  rest  as 
it  chooses.  The  more  difficult  it  is  made  to  reach  the 
banks,  through  vines  and  alders,  and  the  harder  it  is 
made  to  cast  the  fly  or  to  wade  the  stream,  the  better 
the  fishing  will  be  to  experts,  and  the  more  the  angler 
will  enjoy  the  hard-earned  trout  he  gets  from  it. 

Moderately  still  places  for  spawning  should  be  pro- 
vided, and  if  there  is  no  gravel  in  the  stream,  dump  in 
several  wagon  loads  at  different  shallow  places,  for  if 
there  is  no  gravel  in  your  stream  the  trout  will  leave  it 
in  spawning  time  and  seek  gravel  elsewhere,  and  your 
stream  will  be  barren. 

If  it  is  a  brawling  mountain  brook  little  can  be  done 
unless  to  deepen  pools  and  make  places  where  there 
will  be  eddies  in  times  of  freshets,  so  that  the  trout  will 
not  be  washed  out  of  their  homes.  Their  tendency  is 
to  run  up  stream  at  such  times,  and  they  will  do  it  If 
they  can. 

The  following,  translated  for  "The  Literary  Digest," 
shows  the  peculiarities  of  currents  in  streams : 

"The  phenomena  exhibited  by  rivers  are  treated  in 
an  article  in  "Der  Stein  der  Weisen,"  Vienna,  June  15, 


Trout  Breeding.  109 

We  reproduce  the  diagrams  and  give  a  translation  of 
part  of  the  text  below : 

"  The  most  important  factor  in  determining  the  cur- 
rent of  a  river  is  its  speed,  which  increases  with  the  fall 
and  the  quantity  of  water  and  diminishes  with  increase 
of  the  width  of  the  channel.  The  speed  varies  also 
with  the  interior  friction  and  with  the  friction  of  the 
water  against  the  banks.  .  .  . 

"  'The  result  of  this  is  that  not  all  parts  of  the  cur- 
rent along  a  cross-section  are  moving  at  equal  speed. 
The  velocity  increases  in  a  vertical  direction  from  the 
ground  toward  the  surface,  but  it  is  greatest  not  at  the 
surface  but  a  little  distance  beneath  it;  likewise  it  in- 
creases at  the  surface  itself  from  the  banks  toward  the 
middle.  The  lines  of  equal  velocity  in  a  cross-section 
take  the  form  of  half-elipses  convex  downward.  It 
must  be  remarked  further  that  the  surface  of  the  water 
is  not  horizontal,  but  sometimes  convex  and  sometimes 
concave.  It  is  the  first  in  case  a  considerable  mass  of 
water  with  higher  velocity  (as  at  high  water)  moves 
in  mid-stream,  so  that  the  middle  of  the  river  conveys 
more  water  than  the  sides.  When  the  water  is  falling, 
a  greater  amount  of  water  is  flowing  away  at  the  mid- 
dle, and  the  surface  becomes  concave.  ...  In  the 
Mississippi  these  oscillations  of  level  measure  as  much 
as  two  metres  (six  feet). 

'  'Owing  to  the  shape  of  the  bed  of  the  stream,  espe- 
cially at  the  bottom,  the  water  is  deviated  from  a 
straight  line,  so  that  the  line  of  greatest  depth  in  the 
stream  is  curved.  .  .  .  If  we  observe  the  move- 
ment of  the  water  from  the  banks  *to  the  middle  of  the 
stream  we  find  that  the  water  in  the  middle  moves 
downward  and  then  in  a  spiral  path  approaches  first  the 
bottom  and  then  the  bank,' 


1 10     Modem  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

"The  author  next  proceeds  to  describe  the  formation 
of  eddies,  the  commonest  case  being  illustrated  in  Fig. 


FIG.  i. 

i,  which  needs  no  explanation,  the  direction  and  course 
of  the  current  being  represented^  by  arrows.  Fig.  2 
shows  a  curious  spiral  motion  of  the  water  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  current  on  the  two  sides  of  the  channel 
sometimes  moves  with  different  velocities,  setting  up  a 
tendency  to  form  a  series  of  eddies.  Fig.  3  shows  the 
formation  of  two  kinds  of  eddies,  one  in  front  and  one 
behind  an  obstructing  point  of  land,  which  approaches 
so  near  to  the  opposite  bank  as  to  deflect  the  current 
noticeably,  producing  the  phenomenon  known  in  the 
Danube  as  'Schwall'  (swell).  Finally  we  have  the 
continuous  circling  movements  known  as  whirlpools, 
which  require  deep  water  and  such  conformation  of  the 


Trout  Breeding. 


Ill 


banks  as  to  direct  the  current  in  exactly  the  proper 
place  for  their  formation.  The  article  concludes  with 
the  following  description  of  flood-phenomena : 

"  'In  a  swiftly  flowing  freshet  the  current  at  the 
surface  is  mostly  in  wave-motion.  At  the  banks  arise 
by  reflection  cross-waves  which  form  with  the  others 
by  interference  of  what  are  usually  called  "wtiite  caps." 


FIG.  2. 

All  the  phenomena  that  appear  during  quiet  flow  are 
heightened  in  these  times  of  flood — the  eddies,  the 
spiral  movements,  the  whirlpools.  Also  the  rapid  wear- 
ing away  of  the  sandy  banks  in  places  where  the  fric- 
tion of  the  current  is  most  powerful  makes  the  whole 
proceeding  evident  to  the  eye/  " 


1 12     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 
CHAPTER  VIII. 

PONDS. 

The  first  thing  to  be  considered  is  the  intention  of 
the  owner  and  what  he  wishes  to  do  with  his  pond  or 
ponds.  He  may  want  as  large  a  pond  as  possible  in 
which  trout  will  feed  themselves  and  afford  him  fish- 
ing for  himself  and  friends,  or  to  market  some  trout 


each  spring.     He  may  wish  to  have  a  hatchery  and 
rearing  ponds  to  stock  his  main  pond  with,  or  to  have 
a  series  of  ponds  in  which  to  grow  trout  on  artificial 
food. 
There  are  several  ways  in  which  trout  may  be  culti- 


Trout  Breeding.  113 

vated,  dependent  upon  the  extent  and  character  of  the 
water  and  the  inclination  of  the  owner  as  to  the  amount 
of  time  he  cares  to  devote  to  it,  and  the  expense  which 
he  is  willing  to  incur  in  beginning,  which,  as  in  most 
other  affairs,  bears  some  relation  to  the  prospective  re- 
sults. With  proper  facilities,  intelligent  fishculture 
will  prove  as  remunerative  as  any  of  the  minor  indus- 
tries of  the  farm,  such  as  bee  and  poultry  keeping,  but 
it  is  only  very  rare  and  exceptional  places  where  it  can 
be  made  a  separate  and  distinct  business  which  would 
warrant  a  person  in  devoting  his  whole  time  to  it. 

Where  the  spring  rises  upon  a  farm  and  flows  some 
distance  through  it,  with  some  fall  and  space  to  make 
ponds,  the  conditions  are  most  favorable.  It  is  very 
difficult  to  give  directions  for  making  trout  ponds 
which  will  be  applicable  to  all  places,  but  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  the  very  worst  location  and  form  for  them  is 
in  a  ravine  where  they  are  made  by  a  series  of  dams 
thrown  across.  Such  an  arrangement  is  sure  to  come 
to  grief,  sooner  or  later,  and  if  the  dams  are  so  strongly 
made  as  to  resist  an  unusual  flood  from  suddenly  melt- 
ed snow,  or  heavy  rains,  then  the  leaves  and  other  riff- 
raff will  clog  the  screens  until  the  increased  pressure 
carries  them  away  and  the  fish  have  a  chance  to  escape. 
The  smaller  the  trout  the  more  difficult  it  is  to  confine 
them,  not  only  on  account  of  their  ability  to  escape 
through  a  small  opening,  but  in  consequence  of  their 
desire  to  continually  seek  that  opening — a  desire  which 
is  intense  during  their  first  year  of  life,  but  which  de- 
creases until  it  is  so  much  diminished  that  large  fish,  of 
say  three-quarters  of  a  pound,  can  hardly  be  driven 
from  deep  water. 

If  only  one  pond  is  contemplated  in  which  the  fish 
are  to  be  placed  to  seek  their  own  food  and  care  for 


1 14     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  WateY. 

themselves,  then  it  may  be  made  as  large  as  the  stream 
which  supplies  it  will  admit  of — that  is,  it  must  not  bo 
so  large  that  the  water  will  get  above  70°  Fahr.,  in  the 
bottom  of  the  pond.  Depth  will  give  coolness,  or  if 
there  are  springs  in  the  bottom  the  fish  will  congregate 
there  at  the  hottest  times,  while  the  warmer  water  at 
the  surface  and  shallow  edge  is  favorable  for  the  pro- 
duction of  insect  life  for  their  food.  The  stream  above 
can  be  covered  with  gravel  as  a  spawning  ground,  and 
the  young  will  have  a  chance  to  escape  being  devoured 
by  the  larger  fish  by  keeping  in  the  shallows. 

A  pond  of  this  kind  was  made  at  West  Bloomfield, 
N.  Y.,  on  the  farm  of  Mr.  Stephen  H.  Ainsworth,  a 
gentleman  who  was  among  the  first  to  engage  in  trout 
culture  in  New  York,  beginning  about  the  year  1858. 
He  had  a  marshy  spot  of  ground,  formed  by  many 
small  springs,  whose  united  currents  in  the  dryest  times 
made  a  stream  scarcely  larger  than  a  leadpencil ;  and 
digging  this  out  he  made  a  pond  50x100  feet,  which 
was  16  feet  deep,  and  covered  over,  where  he  raised 
many  fish  under  great  difficulties.  In  a  dry  season  the 
supply  barely  equaled  the  evaporation,  and  no  water 
passed  from  the  pond ;  and  on  several  occasions  he  lost 
his  largest  fish  from  the  heat,  until,  in  the  year  1871, 
he  removed  the  trout  and  substituted  black  bass.  Yet 
he  had  accomplished  enough  to  be  an  authority  upon 
trout  culture  in  that  day,  and  is  now  quoted  to  show 
what  can  be  done  with  little  means,  although  I  should 
never  advise  any  one  with  only  his  facilities  to  make 
an  attempt  at  trout  raising.  And  the  point  to  which 
attention  should  be  directed  is  the  ratio  of  depth  to  sur- 
face in  his  pond ;  if  he  had  exposed  more  surface  to  the 
weather,  or  made  his  pond  less  deep,  he  probably  would 
never  have  kept  a  trout  through  the  first  summer.  In 


Trout  Breeding.  115 

cases  of  a  rise  in  the  temperature  the  large  fish  are  the 
first  to  suffer. 

LARGE  SINGLE  PONDS. 

It  is  difficult  to  give  directions  which  will  be  suit- 
able for  all  places,  but  I  will  repeat  that  a  dam  in  a 
ravine  is  the  worst  form.  In  such  a  place  it  seems  bet- 
ter to  make  a  small  dam,  and  lead  the  water  from  it  into 
ponds  at  the  side  of  the  ravine,  and  let  the  floods  go 
down  the  old  channel.  My  own  ponds,  at  Honeoye 
Falls,  Monroe  County,  New  York,  were  made  in  a 
piece  of  low,  flat  land,  with  a  plough  and  road  scraper, 
using  the  earth,  gravel,  etc.,  taken  out  to  fill  up  around 
the  ponds.  Afterward  they  were  finished  with  pick 
and  shovel,  and  a  dry  stone  wall  laid  around  them 
merely  to  hold  the  banks,  but  they  were  small,  only 
6ox?5  feet  and  5  feet  deep.  The  first  one  built  was 
laid  in  cement,,  but  was  no  better  than  the  others.  In 
some  places  there  is  muck  enough  to  pay  for  the  dig- 
ging in  manure ;  but  if  the  water  can  be  kept  off,  such 
ponds  are  not  expensive.  Here  is  the  cost  of  one  of 
mine  of  the  dimensions  above  given : 

Two  men  and  team  two  days $10.00 

One  man  with  shovel  two  days 3.00 

Team  and  man  hauling  stone  three  days..  .  10.50 

Man  laying  wall  three  days 4.50 

Screen  boxes 3.00 

Man  one  day  ditching .......  1.50 

Total $32.50 

The  cost  of  stone  was  not  added,  as  there  was  a 
quarry  on  the  farm. 


1 16     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  WateY. 

Naturally  sloped  banks  of  soil,  sodded  to  below  the 
water's  edge,  are  best  for  all  ponds  over  100x200  feet, 
but  surface  water  must  be  kept  out.  All  ponds  of  the 
size  named  I  call  "large,"  because  when  we  come  to 
consider  the  "small  ponds"  of  the  professional  fish- 
culturist  it  will  be  found  that  they  are  so  narrow  that 
every  fish  in  them  may  be  seen  at  all  times. 

The  single  large  pond  can  only  be  worked  to  its 
greatest  capacity  by  having  a  hatchery,  taking  and 
hatching  the  eggs,  rearing  yearlings  and  turning  them 
out  in  the  following  spring  after  the  water  has  been 
drained  off  and  all  trout  of  the  previous  year  taken  out, 
thus  raising  and  marketing  two-year-old  trout  each 
year,  and  a  trout  above  that  age  is  worth  no  more  than 
any  other  fish,  in  market.  See  chapter  on  "Market- 
able Trout. "  All  trout  ponds  should  be  drawn  down 
once  a  year,  or  the  trout  will  have  a  muddy  flavor  from 
decaying  vegetation. 

The  bottom  of  the  pond  should  be  flat,  if  not  level, 
and  the  fish  should  be  removed  with  a  net,  instead  of 
draining  off  the  water  to  take  them  out.  One  of  my 
mistakes  will  illustrate  this :  An  original  idea,  one  of 
those  which  so  often  come  out  of  the  little  end  of  the 
horn,  was  to  have  a  drain-pipe  at  the  bottom  of  the 
pond  stopped  with  a  plug,  and  then  make  a  deeper 
place  in  the  centre,  so  that  when  the  water  was  drawn 
off  the  fish  would  be  all  there  ready  to  be  dipped  out 
with  a  hand  or  scoop  net.  What  could  be  more  handy  ? 
An  improvement!  After  being  in  use  three  years  it 
became  necessary  to  take  out  the  large  trout  and  trans- 
fer them  to  another  pond,  and  the  water  was  drawn  off. 
When  about  a  foot  was  left  the  fish  began  to  get 
alarmed  and  rush  around,  stirring  up  the  water,  which 
had  appeared  like  crystal,  until  the  motion  of  the  fish 


Trdut  Breeding.  117 

could  be  seen,  and  when  drawn  down  as  low  as  pos- 
sible they  naturally  gathered  in  the  pit,  where  they 
were  dipped  into  tubs  of  clean  water  by  a  man  in  rub- 
ber boots.  While  in  the  pit  they  began  to  show  signs 
of  distress  by  keeping  their  noses  out  of  the  water,  and 
the  man  who  was  dipping  them  said :  "It  smells  like 
gunpowder."  Then  another  idea,  not  original,  dawned  : 
the  fish  were  being  asphyxiated  by  the  foul  gas  or  sul- 
phureted  hydrogen ! 

The  sluice  at  the  inlet  was  opened,  but  too  late.  Out 
of  the  2,500  fine  breeding  fish,  only  39  were  saved ; 
they  died  even  after  being  placed  in  fresh  water  while 
still  breathing,  and  an  expensive  lesson  in  the  dear 
school  of  experience  was  learned.  I  had  seen  the 
Southern  darkies  muddy  ponds  when  collecting  speci- 
mens for  me,  and  knew  that  this  gas,  which  lies  at  the 
bottom  of  all  waters  in  which  there  is  anything  to  de- 
cay, was  a  deadly  poison  if  stirred,  but  the  thought 
never  occurred  that  the  fish  would  do  their  own  "mud- 
dying," as  the  darkies  called  it. 

This  experiment  shows  another  fact :  fish  which  feel 
secure  in  from  three  to  four  feet  of  water,  and  show 
no  alarm  at  persons  walking  at  the  edge  of  the  pond, 
and  which  will  come  readily  to  the  surface  to  feed  in 
your  presence,  or  even  take  it  from  your  hand,  will,  in 
water  of  not  over  a  foot  in  depth,  be  as  timid  as  wild 
fish  just  taken  from  the  brook.  Their  sense  of  secur- 
ity is  gone ;  hence  it  is  better  to  take  them  with  a  net 
large  enough  to  sweep  the  pond.  It  also  shows  what  a 
little  oversight  or  false  reckoning  may  do  toward  sweep- 
ing away  the  results  of  expenditure  and  labor.  In  fact 
there  is  none  among  our  domestic  animals  more  diffi- 
cult to  manage,  for  the  beginner,  than  trout,  if  they  may 
be  allowed  to  be  domesticated;  and  their  tendency  to 


1 1 8     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  WatW. 

go  astray  is  excelled  by  the  element  in  which  they  live, 
which  is  notorious  for  having  a  way  of  its  own,  which 
is  never  our  way,  and  for  seeking  it  at  all  times ;  hence 
in  trout  culture  the  great  difficulties  to  be  overcome 
are,  to  confine  the  water  so  that  it  is  secure  under  ex- 
traordinary strains  of  flood  and  accident  and  to  con- 
fine the  fish— the  latter  being  hardly  as  difficult  as  the 
former. 

If  the  owner  does  not  care  to  go  into  the  business  of 
hatching  trout  for  a  succession,  as  described,  he  should 
provide  good  spawning  places  such  as  are  mentioned 
in  the  preceding  chapter,  and  see  that  nothing  molests 
the  spawning  beds  in  winter.  In  this  way  he  may  get 
a  few  trout  which  escape  the  old  ones,  which  will  keep 
them  from  becoming  too  plenty. 

PONDS  IN  A  SERIES. 

In  making  a  series  of  ponds  in  which  fish  of  different 
sizes  are  to  be  kept  and  fed  a  different  system  is  pur- 
sued, the  ponds  being  made  small,  in  order  that  the 
water  may  be  changed  quickly,  and  so  sustain  more 
fish,  and  the  stock  can  be  seen  and  its  condition  known 
at  all  times.  Such  ponds  may  be  50  to  60  feet  long  by 
10  to  12  wide  and  4  to  6  deep,  with  sides  of  clay,  if  that 
is  the  material  dug  through,  stone,  or  wood.  A  spawn- 
ing race  should  be  made  at  the  upper  end,  20  to  30  feet 
long  by  4  feet  wide,  the  bottom  sloping  from  I  to  2 
feet  where  it  enters  the  pond ;  this  will  give  the  pond  a 
shape  like  a  long-necked  bottle. 

There  should  be  a  fall  of  at  least  six  inches  from  the 
pond  above  into  the  spawning  race,  more  if  the  lay  of 
the  land  will  permit,  in  order  to  aerate  the  water.  For 
need  of  this  see  chapter  on  "Transportation  of  Fish/' 


Trout  Breeding.  119 

The  raceway  should  be  covered  with  gravel  at  all 
times;  for  if  the  fish  are  not  well,  or  are  troubled  with 
parasites,  they  resort  to  swift  water  and  gravel  bot- 
toms to  rub  their  sides  and  clean  themselves.  This 
gravel  should  be  from  half  an  inch  to  an  inch  or  more 
in  diameter. 

In  facing  the  pond  with  boards  the  pressure  of  the 
earth  must  be  provided  for,  or  the  sides  will  soon  fall 
in,  or  at  least  become  badly  bulged.  To  prevent  this, 
lay  timbers  on  the  bottom  and  frame  the  uprights  into 
them;  nail  the  boards  on  the  outside  of  the  uprights, 
which  should  extend  above  the  ground  and  be  braced 
apart  by  joists  running  across  the  pond  a  foot  or  more 
above  water.  Even  these  will  spring  in  time  if  not 
quite  stiff.  Ponds  well  built  require  but  little  work  to 
keep  them  in  order — an  occasional  stopping  of  muskrat 
or  of  crawfish  holes,  and  in  the  spring  to  repair  dam- 
age from  frost,  if  any,  or  to  patch  up  a  bank  or  wall. 
There  are  hard  soils  where  neither  wood  nor  stone  are 
needed  (except  on  the  spawning  races,  whose  sides 
should  be  vertical),  but  may  be  made  at  a  slope  more  or 
less  inclined.  Willows  planted  near  the  pond  are  valu- 
able as  shade  trees,  or  floats  of  boards  may  be  of  use  in 
keeping  the  water  cool,  besides  being  a  sort  of  protec- 
tion from  the  little  kingfisher. 

Perhaps  an  account  of  the  way  I  made  the  ponds  for 
the  New  York  State  hatchery  at  Cold  Spring  Harbor, 
Long  Island,  will  be  of  interest,  for  they  involved  great 
labor.  I  took  charge  on  January  I,  1883,  and  started 
work.  An  old  building  was  used  to  hatch  eggs  .ob- 
tained elsewhere,  and  there  was  a  spring  reservoir  some 
300  feet  long  by  20  wide,  which  had  been  made  to  turn 
a  turbine  wheel  in  the  old  building.  This  reservoir 
was  high  enough  to  bring  water  into  troughs  on  the 


I2O    Modern  Pishcutture  in  fresh  and  Salt 


floor  of  the  second  story,  from  where  it  went  to  the 
floor  below  and  was  again  used.  Some  holes  in 
swampy  land  below  had  been  intended  for  trout  ponds, 
but  they  were  covered  with  water  from  the  harbor  at 
high  tide  and  geese  swam  up  to  the  hatchery. 

The  north  side  of  the  island  is  hillv,  some  hills  being 
200  feet  above  tide,  and  they  are  glacial  drifts,  sand, 
clay,  gravel,  etc.,  plowed  out  from  the  mainland  by  the 
ice.  Such  a  hill  was  within  500  feet,  and  I  filled  the 
old  holes  with  sand,  leveling  the  swamp.  Then 
"ponds"  were  staked  out  and  left  as  the  sand  was 
dumped  around  them,  on  the  principle  that  the  Irish- 
man said  cannon  were  made  ;  said  he  :  "They  take  a 
long  hole  and  pour  brass  around  it."  So  we  made 
ponds.  These  were  temporary  ponds,  merely  for  use 
until  the  State  could  afford  better,  and  the  raceways 
were  made  of  the  cheapest  hemlock  boards. 

In  1887  there  was  an  appropriation  for  a  new  hatch- 
ery made  at  the  insistence  of  Commissioner  Blackford, 
and  I  planned  to  put  it  as  high  as  the  inflow  from  the 
reservoir  would  bear,  as  the  water  went  from  the  hatch- 
ery to  the  ponds,  and  when  it  was  up  high  we  could 
control  it.  When  the  ground  was  staked  out  for  the 
building  the  northwest  corner  was  three  feet  above 
ground  and  the  southeast  was  thirteen  feet  in  the  air. 
It  looked  queer,  but  the  levels  were  correct.  The  foun- 
dation was  built  and  I  filled  the  grounds  until  there 
was  no  queer  look  about  it.  The  old  ponds  were  filled 
and  new  ones  of  sand  built  with  their  bottoms  where 
the  old  surface  was. 

For  a  time  it  was  dangerous  to  step  near  a  pond,  but 
it  settled  hard.  Walks  and  flower-beds  were  laid  out 
and  a  road  made  east  of  the  ponds,  which  is  as  solid 
to-day  as  can  be.  The  sand  holds  water  well.  The 


Trout  Breeding.  121 

carting  of  sand  and  gravel  cost  the  State  much  money, 
but  it  is  worth  it.  It  is  the  most  important  hatchery 
in  the  State  of  New  York  to-day.  I  established  the 
culture  of  smelts,  lobsters  and  tomcods  there,  and  it 
Mr.  Blackford  had  not  been  removed  from  the  Com- 
mission for  political  reasons  I  would  have  made  a  park 
of  the  place  and  have  gone  on  with  experiments  in 
hatching  oysters  and  clams.  But  a  change  of  adminis- 
tration led  to  my  discharge,  and  to-day  a  great  un- 
sightly ice-house  stands  in  the  centre  of  what  was  to  be 
my  "park/'  and  there  is  a  stable  where  a  "conserva- 
tory" for  water  plants  and  the  breeding  of  fresh  water 
crustaceans  and  insects  was  planned ;  and  my  dream  of 
a  trout  park  and  all  its  adjuncts  is  over.  Blessed  be 
the  small-souled  politicians,  for  they  will  never  develop 
into  anything  greater ! 


DRAINS. 

If  the  lay  of  the  land  permits  it,  there  should  be  some 
way  of  lowering  the  water  in  order  to  clean  the  pond. 
If  the  pond  is  dug  in  the  soil  there  should  be  a  drain- 
pipe put  in,  and  this,  if  of  wood,  may  be  stopped  by  a 
plug.  But  a  plug  is  difficult  to  get  out  when  the  water 
is  several  feet  deep;  a  box  on  the  inner  end  with  a 
sliding  gate  which  can  be  lifted  by  a  hook  fitting  into  a 
hole  is  better.  Do  not  plug  the  lower  end  of  the  pipe 
and  leave  the  upper  end  open  or  you  have  a  harbor  for 
eels,  water-snakes,  or  at  least  a  hiding  place  for  a  large 
cannibal  trout,  for  a  trout  of  that  kind  prefers  solitude. 
If  the  drain  is  a  square  box-trunk  it  may  be  turned  up 
at  a  right-angle  and'  used  as  an  overflow  stand-pipe,  if 
the  water  is  not  required  to  be  kept  up  for  any  reason. 


122     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

In  this  case  make  a  sliding  groove  for  the  dams,  which 
may  be  lifted  one  by  one,  and  are  kept  down  by  pins  or 
wedges  at  the  top. 

Tile-pipe  are  not  good  for  drains.  I  have  laid  them 
and  relaid  them  many  times,  cementing  them  most  care- 
fully and  then  reinforced  the  joints  with  another  coat- 
ing of  cement,  but  tree  roots  would  force  their  way  in 
somehow  and  either  fill  the  pipe  or  break  it.  At  Cold 
Spring  Harbor,  New  York,  I  piped  a  spring  from  an 
upper  level  in  six-inch  tile-pipe,  and  it  filled  up  with 
roots.  In  one  case  the  root  of  a  locust  tree  had  found 
an  entrance,  and  while  only  as  thick  as  a  sheet  of  letter- 
paper  and  half  an  inch  wide  where  it  went  in,  we  took 
out  thirty-seven  feet  of  branching,  matted  roots,  which 
nearly  filled  the  pipe.  Then  I  had  the  pipe  relaid  with 
extra  care,  but  to  no  purpose;  the  roots  would  have 
water  and  knew  how  to  get  it,  even  where  there  was  no 
leak.  Here  is  a  chance  for  a  question  about  the  habits 
of  tree  roots  in  their  search  for  water;  but  having 
fought  this  "instinct'7  of  roots  for  many  years,  I  have 
given  up  trying  to  solve  the  riddle. 

Remembering  these  things,  when  we  obtained  an- 
other spring  to  bring-  down  I  bought  four-inch  iron 
"soil  pipe,"  caulked  the  collars  with  oakum  and  then 
ran  lead  around  on  the  oakum.  After  this  the  lead 
was  caulked,  and  the  pipe  will  carry  water  for  a  cen- 
tury without  interference  from  roots.  This  method, 
and  pump  logs,  are  the  only  means  I  know  of  to  con- 
vey water  underground  without  interference  from 
roots,  if  there  are  trees  near.  A  willow  or  a  locust 
will  send  roots  a  hundred  yards  for  water,  if  it  is  there, 
while  on  the  other  side  of  the  tree  the  roots  might  not 
extend  fifty  feet. 

It  is  said  that  iron-filings  mixed  with  cement  will 


Trout  Breeding,  123 

keep  roots  from  the  joints  of  drain  tile.     Having  no  ex- 
perience with  this,  it  is  mentioned  without  comment. 


DAMS. 

These  cannot  be  too  carefully  made  to  contend  with 
pressure,  leakage,  muskfats,  crawfish,  frost  and  other 
things  which  are  ever  working  to  help  water  get  to  the 
lowest  possible  point.  The  following  is  from  a  news- 
paper which  came  after  this  chapter  was  begun : 

NUNDA,  N.  Y.,  Jan.  30,  1899. — Miller's  dam  went  out 
this  morning.  The  washout,  which  resulted  from  un- 
dermining by  muskrats,  entails  heavy  loss  to  mill  own- 
ers who  have  utilized  the  water.  The  disaster  occurred 
at  a  time  when  the  valuable  ice  crop  was  nearly  ready  to 
harvest.  In  building  a  dam,  whether  of  earth,  stone, 
logs  or  a  combination  of  any  or  all  of  these  materials, 
the  greatest  care  must  be  taken  to  lay  the  foundation  so 
deep  that  no  trickle  of  water  excavation,  of  muskrat  or 
crawfish  can  go  under  it,  and  at  the  sides  the  dam  should 
extend  so  far  as  to  prevent  such  mishaps. 

So  much  depends  upon  the  nature  of  the  ground  and 
the  materials  to  be  used  that  it  is  impossible  to  go  fur- 
ther into  the  construction  of  dams  than  to  say:  Make 
them  about  twice  as  strong  as  you  think  they  need  be 
and — then  make  them  a  little  stronger. 


SCREENS   FOR   PONDS. 

Screens  should  be  made  at  least  ten  times  larger  than 
the  space  required  for  the  water.  For  instance,  if  the 
flow  will  pass  through  a  hole  six  inches  square,  the 


124     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

screen  should  be  at  the  least  calculation  nineteen  inches 
each  way,  giving  361  square  inches,  which  will  allow 
for  some  portions  of  it  to  become  clogged,  and  yet  pass 
the  water  through  easily;  this  also  diminishes  the 
chance  of  stoppage  by  its  slower  flow.  A  good  form 
for  a  small  outlet  is  a  trough,  say  six  feet  long  by  two 
feet  wide  and  twenty  inches  deep,  with  a  dam  near  the 
lo\ver  end  about  fifteen  inches  high.  When  the  screens 
are  placed  in  this,  above  the  dam,  slanting  the  top  down 
stream  at  an  angle  of  45  degrees,  it  gives  a  good  screen 
surface,  the  dam  being  placed  at  the  height  at  which 
the  water  is  to  stand  in  the  pond  and  the  screen  made  to 
slide  between  slats.  Great  care  must  be  taken  in  setting 
such  a  trough,  if  in  earth,  that  the  water  does  not  work 
around  and  under  it,  or  that  frost  does  not  lift  it  out  of 
place ;  the  former  may  be  provided  for  by  wide  flanges, 
which  make  a  sort  of  bulkhead  and  obstruct  the  direct 
passage  of  crawfish,  earthworms  or  other  borers,  which, 
by  starting  a  small  leak,  will  soon  cause  a  large  one 
before  its  presence  is  suspected.  To  guard  against  up- 
heaval by  frost,  in  a  climate  where  the  brook  trout  love 
to  dwell,  is  a  more  difficult  matter ;  but  my  own  experi- 
ence on  this  point  leads  to  a  preference  for  light  soils 
for  tamping  around  the  outlet  box,  instead  of  clay, 
which  I  first  used  on  account  of  its  resistance  to  water, 
but  afterward  abandoned,  after  a  winter's  fight  with 
frost,  in  favor  of  a  sandy,  gravelly  soil  which  was  found 
to  serve  the  purpose  as  well,  as  far  as  the  frost  was  con- 
cerned, but  which  afforded  excellent  digging  for  the 
crawfish  (fresh-water  lobster)  with  which  the  stream 
was  infested,  and  whose  tunnels,  once  made  in  clay, 
never  by  any  chance  closed  up ;  and,  knowing  their  dis- 
like to  work  in  either  sawdust  or  tanbark,  a  space  of 
about  a  foot  was  filled  with  these  materials  so  that  there 


Trout  Breeding.  125 

was  a  barrier  running  around  the  box,  backed  in  front 
and  rear  by  soil  which  was  thought  to  be  the  least  affect- 
ed by  frost. 

The  screens  should  be  made  with  as  large  spaces  be- 
tween the  slats  or  wires  as  the  size  of  uhe  fish  demands, 
and  it  will  be  found  convenient  to  have  the  outlet  boxes 
of  the  different  ponds  and  the  frames  all  of  one  size,  so 
as  to  be  readily  interchangeable.  The  wires  or  slats  for 
the  fish  of  half  a  pound  and  over  may  have  a  half  inch 
space  between  them,  and  for  this  purpose  well  galvan- 
ized iron  wire  is  best,  or,  if  not  convenient,  a  screen  can 
be  made  of  planed  lath,  set  edgeways ;  while  for  year- 
lings well  tarred  wire  cloth  of  four  wires  to  the  inch  is 
necessary,  and  for  the  fry  during  the  first  months  at 
least  fourteen  wires  to  the  inch.  Screens  for  the  inlets 
are  best  placed  perpendicularly,  in  order  that  no  trout 
may  lie  under  them  and  shoot  up  stream  when  the 
screen  is  raised.  The  disposition  of  water  to  find  its 
own  way,  and  that  way  being  always  different  from  our 
way,  combined  with  the  disposition  of  trout,  in  their 
younger  days,  to  prefer  any  location  rather  than  that 
which  we  have  provided  for  them,  renders  the  subject 
of  screens  and  appliances  for  confining  them  a  very  im- 
portant one  to  the  fishculturist,  and  one  liable  to  defeat 
all  his  calculations  and  waste  all  his  time,  labor  and 
money,  if  not  properly  considered.  I  have  kept  sharks 
and  whales  in  confinement,  and  have  seen  the  wildest  of 
beasts  and  birds  so  kept,  but  of  all  animals  that  man 
confines  there  is  none  so  uncertain  to  be  found  in  the 
morning,  where  it  was  apparently  so  secure  the  night 
before,  as  a  brook  trout  of  an  inch  and  a  half  long.  It 
is  an  impossibility  to  confine  therein  a  stream,  and  very 
difficult  in  a  pond,  as  a  crack  or  worm  hole  in  a  board, 
or  in  the  earth  or  masonry,  will  be  found  by  a  hundred 


126     Modern  Fishculture  in'Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

little  eyes,  and  its  size  tested  by  half  as  many  heads; 
and  if  water  flows  through  it,  they  are  very  apt  to  fol- 
low, no  matter  where  it  may  lead,  nor  whether  return  is 
possible.  The  instinct  of  a  trout  impels  it  to  jump  at  a 
fall  or  in  going  up  stream,  hence  provision  must  be 
made  to  stop  them  from  leaping  over  the  inlet  screen  by 
a  projecting  board  or  other  device,  more  especially  in 
the  fall  of  the  year,  when  they  wish  to  ascend  to  the 
upper  waters  to  seek  suitable  places  for  spawning. 

If  the  fry  are  kept  for  the  first  nine  months  or  a  year 
in  "rearing  boxes,"  it  is  not  so  hard  to  confine  them  as 
it  is  in  the  outdoor  ponds,  where  the  woodwork  has  to 
be  fitted  into  the  earth ;  and  this  system  has  its  advan- 
tages, which  are  security  of  confinement,  compactness, 
the  ease  with  which  they  can  be  inspected  and  the  larger 
ones  removed  from  their  weaker  brethren,  and  the  pro- 
tection from  bird,  beast,  reptile  and  insect  enemies  to 
which  their  relatives  in  the  outdoor  pond  are  exposed. 
To  counterbalance  these  advantages,  we  have  in  the 
rearing  boxes  more  care  and  labor,  and  less  natural 
food.  Still,  if  the  labor  can  be  given,  it  is  the  surest 
way,  for  the  first  three  months  at  least,  after  which  time 
they  are  better  able  to  stand  the  exposure  of  outdoor 
ponds  and  avoid  their  enemies,  which  decrease  in  num- 
bers with  increasing  size. 

There  is  always  one  fence  in  summer  time  which  de- 
tains the  trout  more  effectually  than  any  screen.  This 
is  the  stream  of  warm  water  which  the  trout  brook  emp- 
ties into,  and,  although  they  may  seek  its  depths  for 
food  in  winter  after  running  down  off  the  spawning 
beds,  the  first  hint  of  a  rising  temperature  sends  them 
back  to  the  cooler  sprjng  waters. 

A  good  self-cleaning  screen  for  large  trout  is  a  re- 
volving cylinder  of  wire  cloth.  Make  disks  of  eighteen 


Trout  Breeding.  127 

inches  with  four  strips  to  stiffen  the  cylinder  and  cover 
this  with  No.  2  wire  cloth.  Run  an  axle  through  it  and 
set  it  so  that  it  will  revolve  in  the  current,  with  six 
inches  of  water  to  turn  it ;  *.  e.,  set  it  in  water  to  that 
depth.  A  half  inch  btlow  the  cylinder  set  a  board 
edgewise  under  its  centre,  and  all  leaves  and  fine  trash 
will  be  passed  without  clogging.  This  can  be  made  to 
fit  a  trough  or  box.  A  coarse  screen  should  be  placed 
in  front  of  it  to  catch  sticks. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

TEMPERATURES. 

There  are  extreme  temperatures  which  limit  the  lives 
of  all  things,  animal  or  vegetable ;  and  of  all  animals 
the  fishes  are  the  most  sensitive  to  sudden  changes. 
Water  in  lakes  or  streams  is  slow  to  change,  and,  while 
animals  which  live  on  land  endure  changes  of  a  dozen 
degrees  in  twenty-four  hours  occasionally  in  our  north- 
ern climate,  it  takes  many  days  or  even  weeks  to  make 
such  a  change  in  running  waters  or  in  a  large,  deep 
pond.  Even  after  the  surface  of  a  pond  is  frozen  the 
water  at  the  bottom  will  be  found  warmer  than  near 
the  surface  if  the  pond  has  much  depth  or  if  there  are 
bottom  springs. 

I  think  our  brook  trout  would  prefer  an  even  tem- 
perature of  about  60°  Fahr.,  equal  to  10°  Reaumur  or 
to  13°  centigrade.  It  ranges  "from  Maine  to  Dakota 
and  north  to  the  Arctic  Circle  and  south  to  the  Chatta- 


128     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

hoochie  river"  (Jordan).  But  in  the  southern  portion 
of  its  habitat  it  is  confined  to  streams  in  the  Blue  Ridge 
and  is  not  found  in  the  warmer  waters  of  the  low  lands 
or  near  the  coast. 

About  70°  Fahr.  =  17°  R.  or  22°  Cent,  is  the  limit 
of  heat  that  a  brook  trout  will  endure ;  although  if  the 
flow  be  very  strong  they  may  stand  it  for  a  little  time, 
but  will  suffer  and  die  if  the  water  does  not  cool  soon. 
On  a  cloudy,  damp  day  a  trout  will  live  longer  on  land 
than  in  water  of  80°  Fahr. 

Our  lake  trout  cannot  endure  as  warm  water  as  the 
brook  trout  can.  It  has  its  limit  at  about  65°  Fahr. 
For  the  rainbow  and  the  brown  trout  it  has  been  claimed 
that  they  will  endure  water  that  is  slightly  warmer  than 
brook  trout  can  stand,  but  I  am  not  prepared  to  affirm 
or  deny  the  claim,  never  having  submitted  then  to  the 
test. 

Ice  on  a  trout  pond  will  do  no  harm  if  the  pond  has  a. 
circulation  of  water  through  it,  but  a  shallow  pond  with 
no  flow  that  freezes  entirely  over,  leaving  no  air  holes, 
is  a  deathtrap  for  fish  of  any  kind.  Such  ponds  are 
common  along  the  upper  Mississippi,  being  merely  holes 
where  the  high  water  leaves  many  fish.  I  once  chopped 
through  the  ice  on  such  a  pond  and  there  was  a  power- 
ful odor  of  dead  fish ;  they  had  smothered. 


CHAPTER  X. 

FOOD  FOR  ADULT  TROUT — MUSSELS. 

At  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  N.  Y.,  I  made  trial  of  many 
kinds  of  food  for  both  adult  trout  and  fry,  in  order  not 


Trout  Breeding.  129 

only  to  find  the  best  food  but  also  the  cheapest.  I  began 
with  the  old  standard  food,  beef  livers,  but  they  were 
only  to  be  had  from  New  York  City,  thirty-two  miles 
by  rail,  as  no  one  butchered  regularly  in  that  part  of 
Long  Island.  Then  we  tried  the  black  mussels,  Myti- 
lus  edulis,  which  we  boiled  for  convenience  in  opening, 
and  the  fish  appeared  to  thrive  on  them  for  a  few 
months,  when  some  sloops  came  into  the  inner  harbor 
loaded  with  mussels  for  the  city  market,  and  so  cleaned 
up  the  crop  that  my  men  could  not  make  it  profitable  to 
collect  them  any  longer.  These  salt  water  mussels  at- 
tach themselves  to  rocks,  timbers  or  any  stationary  ob- 
ject, and  were  plenty.  They  hang  in  crowded  bunches, 
which  can  be  gathered  in  great  numbers.  The  gray 
mussel  was  not  so  plenty  there  and  is  not  eaten  by  men, 
and  I  can't  speak  of  it  as  fish  food.  I  made  a  mussel 
shucker,  which  worked  well.  It  used  to  take  a  man 
half  a  day  to  cook  and  open  two  bushels  of  these  mol- 
lusks,  and,  believing  that  something  could  be  devised  to 
do  the  work  quicker,  I  made  a  cylinder  of  wire-cloth  of 
three-quarter  inch  mesh,  with  wooden  ends,  and  hung 
so  as  to  be  revolved  by  a  crank.  A  door  in  the  netting 
admitted  the  boiled  mussels  and  a  few  revolutions 
dropped  the  meat  into  a  box  below,  leaving  the  shells  in 
the  cylinder.  But  the  usefulness  of  the  "mussel  jerker," 
as  the  men  termed  it,  was  cut  short  by  the  loss  of  the 
mussels,  as  related. 

SOFT  CLAMS. 

Then  we  tried  the  soft  clams,  or  manninose,  Mya  are- 
raria,  both  raw  and  cooked.  We  liked  them  and  the 
fish  took  them  well,  but  our  yield  of  eggs  was  scant 
that  fall,  as  there  were  more  barren  trout  than  usual. 


130     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

Whether  this  state  of  things  was  caused  by  the  food  or 
not  is  impossible  to  say,  as  it  was  tried  only  one  season 
because  the  neighbors  complained  that  we  were  taking 
too  many  clams  from  the  harbor,  and  we  stopped.  A 
bushel  in  the  shell  weighs  64  pounds  and  the  raw  meat 
1 6  pounds,  but  when  boiled  they  only  weigh  8  pounds. 

HORSE  MEAT. 

There  was  a  "knacker'7  a  few  miles  away  who  killed 
old  or  injured  horses,  sold  their  skins,  bones  and  hoofs, 
and  said  that  he  disposed  of  the  meat  to  the  kennels,  of 
which  Long  Island  has  several ;  but  "Frenchy"  still  had 
meat  to  sell,  and  I  bought  it  free  from  fat  and  bone  at 
four  cents  per  pound.  It  was  fed  from  November,  ' 
1891,  to  September,  1893,  twenty-two  months,  and  long 
enough  to  form  the  opinion  that  fed  raw,  as  we  fed  it, 
we  did  not  want  any  more  of  it.  The  trouble  was  that 
it  was  not  easily  digested,  as  shown  by  the  long  stream- 
ers of  white  fibre  which  trailed  behind  the  fish.  Again 
we  were  short  in  the  number  of  eggs  which  the  trout 
should  have  yielded,  and  some  fish  had  died  from  in- 
flammation of  the  lower  intestines. 

Then  I  found  a  man  in  New  York  City  who  would 
furnish  me  beef  livers  at  four  cents  per  pound,  and 
changed  back  to  the  "old  reliable." 

BEEF  LIGHTS  AND  MAGGOTS. 

At  Honeoye  Falls,  N.  Y.,  in  my  first  trials,  I  fed  beef 
"lights,"  as  the  lungs  are  called.  They  were  fed  raw 
and  cooked,  but  were  indigestible  and  showed  the  same 
white  "flags"  that  horse  meat  did.  Then  I  tried  mag- 


Trout  Breeding.  131 

gots.  Boxes  or  nail  kegs,  with  slat- bottoms,  were  sus- 
pended over  the  ponds,  and  in  these  the  lights  and 
other  refuse  meat  was  suspended.  The  flesh  flies  blew 
it  and  maggots  hatched,  grew  and  dropped  into  the 
ponds  when  the  time  came  for  them  to  go  into  the 
ground  to  enter  the  pupa  stage.  It  was  a  perfect  food, 
the  trout  taking  it  readily  and  growing  finely,  but  ther^ 
was  the  objectionable  odor.  As  the  ponds  were  not 
near  my  house,  the  smell  was  not  so  objectionable  to 
me,  but  there  were  many  visitors,  mere  curiosity  seek- 
ers, who  complained.  But  this  was  not  the  only  reason 
for  its  abandonment.  Swarms  of  great  carrion  beetles, 
over  an  inch  in  length,  came  and  either  ate  the  meat,  the 
maggots,  or  both,  and  I  concluded  that  there  should  be 
more  maggots  per  pound  of  lights  and  meat  than  I  was 
getting,  and  I  abolished  the  "maggot  factories." 

Some  years  ago  Mr.  Charles  G.  Atkins,  superinten- 
dent of  the  United  States  salmon  hatching  station  at 
East  Orland,  Me.,  fed  maggots,  but  he  had  his  "fac- 
tories" on  top  of  a  hill  and  brought  down  the  product  in 
paiiS  or  boxes.  I  think  he  used  smaller  apertures  and 
excluded  the  beetles. 

Lest  any  one  doubt  the  excellence  of  the  larva  of  the 
flesh  fly,  which  we  term  "maggots,"  as  fish  food,  I  will 
cite  the  fact  that  English  anglers,  who  call  them  "gen- 
tles," scour  them  in  bran  for  a  day  or  two  and  use  them 
as  bait  for  several  kinds  of  fish,  and  Izaak  Walton 
speaks  of  his  "box  of  gentles." 


FISH. 

The  flesh  of  fish,   such  as  fresh-water  chubs  and 
suckers,  or  salt-water  kinds  which  have  little  or  no  value 


132      Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

in  market,  are  used  with  good  effect  and  are  one  of  the 
natural  foods  of  trout. 


HASLETS. 

"Sheep's  haslets7'  are  used  east  of  New  York — and 
that  is  a  New  England  name  for  what  New  Yorkers 
call  "plucks,"  meaning  the  heart,  liver  and  lungs  all  at- 
tached to  the  windpipe  as  it  is  removed  from  the  animal. 


NATURAL  FOODS. 

If  the  fish  are  to  forage  for  the  whole  or  part  of  their 
food  the  pond  should  be  stocked  with  such  water  plants 
as  grow  in  spring  water  and  then  the  crustaceans,  gam- 
marus  and  asellus  should  be  introduced.  But  beware  of 


GAMMARUS    (magnified  three  times). 


the  burrowing  crawfish,  for  it  not  only  enters  into  com- 
petition w'ith  the  trout  for  its  crustaceans  and  insect  lar- 
vae, but  makes  holes  in  dams.  Besides  this,  it  cannot  be 
eaten  by  small  trout  when  it  is  in  the  adult  state,  and 
when  soft  it  hides.  The  gammarus  is  usually  called 


Trout  Breeding.  133 

"fresh-water  shrimp,"  while  the  asellus,  or  "water  asel," 
looks  somewhat  like  the  "sowbug"  found  in  decayed 
wood.  In  some  waters  these  crustaceans  grow  to  the 
length  of  three-quarters  of  an  inch,  but  usually  they  are 
smaller.  Trout  also  eat  newts  or  salamanders  as  well 
as  snails,  both  the  spiral  and  the  ramshorn.  Insect 
larvse  will  be  apt  to  breed  in  the  ponds  without  being 
especially  introduced.  The  gammarus  is  greatly  over- 


CYCLOPS,  with  eggs  (magnified  40  diameters). 

rated  as  trout  food.  A  few  are  eaten,  but  not  in  the 
proportion  that  is  usually  thought.  My  searching  of 
stomachs  of  wild  trout  under  two  inches  long  showed, 
under  the  microscope,  that  Cyclops  and  Daphnia,  two 
minute  forms  barely  visible  to  the  eye,  were  the  most 
plentiful. 

On  Wilmurt  lake,  situated  on  top  of  a  mountain  in 
Herkimer  County,  N.  Y.,  where  no  fish  but  brook  trout 


134     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

live,  I  opened  the  stomachs  of  247  trout  that  had  been 
dressed  for  the  table.  No  microscope  was  at  hand,  and 
there  was  much  that  could  not  be  identified.  From 
what  was  distinguishable  a  rough  estimate  was  made. 
It  was :  Insects  and  their  larvse,  80  per  cent. ;  newts,  15, 
and  gammarus,  5. 

At  Meacham  lake,  Northern  Adirondacks,  the  result 
from  138  stomachs  was:  Insects  and  larvae,  60;  newts, 
5  ;  gammarus,  5 ;  fish,  30.  Therefore,  I  feel  warranted 
in  ranking  the  gammarus  low  in  the  list  of  trout  foods. 
Still  it  has  a  value.  Trout  of  a  pound  weight  seldom 
eat  it. 


HOW   THEY  FEED  IN   JAPAN. 

I  have  been  visited  by  several  Japanese  gentlemen 
who  are  interested  in  fishculture.  M.  K.  Ito,  of  Ho- 
kado  Cho,  Sappora,  came  here  twice,  and  at  the  Cen- 
tennial Exposition  in  Philadelphia,  in  1876,  I  often  met 
Mr.  Schizawa  Akekio,  attached  to  the  commission  of 
that  country.  Speaking  several  European  languages 
with  remarkable  fluency,  his  desire  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  methods  of  American  fishculture  was 
only  equaled  by  his  perseverance.  Returning  to  Japan, 
he  at  once  set  to  work  to  establish  fish  hatcheries,  and 
in  1877  fish  stations  were  made  at  Yuki,  Kanawaga, 
Shirako  and  Saitama  Ken,  each  of  them  with  the  ca- 
pacity of  raising  30,000  fish.  The  number  of  these 
fishing  establishments  has  of  late  been  increased.  The 
largest  hatchery  is  at  present  at  Shigaken.  As  cattle 
are  never  butchered  in  Japan,  it  became  quite  impossible 
to  feed  the  young  salmon  on  liver.  Mr.  Akekio,  with 
a  great  deal  of  ingenuity,  substituted  the  chrysalides  of 


Trout  Breeding.  135 

the  silkworm,  mixing  them  with  flour,  and  he  writes  me 
that  after  having  used  this  food  for  four  years,  he  finds 
that  the  fish  thrive  on  it  remarkably  well.  An  analysis 
of  this  food  shows  that  it  contains  nitrogen  substance  in 
abundance,  besides  a  suitable  quantity  of  oily  matter. 
It  seems  that  the  Japanese,  for  the  last  200  years,  have 
employed  a  method  for  propagating  salmon  by  letting 
them  spawn  naturally  and  confining  this  reproduction 
to  a  fixed  locality. 

In  the  River  Tenegawa  there  is  a  natural  spawning 
bed  some  1,200  yards  long  by  50  wide.  A  fence  is 
made  above,  and  after  the  salmon  ascend  another  fence 
is  thrown  across  the  stream  below.  After  the  fish  have 
been  inclosed  for  a  week,  their  eggs  become  naturally 
fertilized,  and  the  parent  fish  are  caught.  Another  lot  of 
fish  are  allowed  to  enter,  and  so  the  process  is  continued. 

Mr.  Akekio  states  that  in  May,  a  year  afterward,  the 
healthy  young  fish  go  down  to  sea.  The  profits  from 
the  river  must  be  large,  as  it  supports,  by  netting  the 
fish,  some  750  families.  Our  most  intelligent  Japanese 
fishculturist  has  been  in  receipt  of  some  McCloud  River 
trout  eggs,  sent  to  him  by  Mr.  B.  B.  Redding,  Fish 
Commissioner  of  California,  in  1877,  and  other  species 
sent  by  Prof.  Baird.  Great  difficulty  was  experienced 
at  first  in  finding  water  of  a  right  temperature,  as  the 
weather  was  warm,  and  there  was  no  ice;  still,  in  the 
face  of  a  great  many  obstacles,  1,000  fish  were  saved. 
"From  1877  till  the  present  time,"  Mr.  Akekio  writes, 
"the  fish  have  grown  satisfactorily,  and  their  average 
weight  is  five  pounds,  and  their  greatest  length  one  and 
a  half  foot."  Both  Japan  and  Germany  are  indebted 
to  the  United  States  for  practical  lessons  in  fishculture, 
and  so  far  our  American  fishculturists  have  not  been 
obliged  to  go  abroad  to  learn  their  business. 


136     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 


PATENT  FOODS. 

I  have  tried  two  kinds  of  patent  food,  or  rather  that 
of  two  makers,  who  put  up  food  for  dogs  and  pheas- 
ants. In  both  cases  it  was  dried  and  full  of  small, 
sharp  bone.  A  trout  can  digest  a  soft  fish  bone,  but 
pieces  of  the  skeleton  of  an  ox  or  horse  are  a  different 
matter.  As  they  could  not  give  me  the  meat  free  from 
bone  we  did  not  do  much  business. 

The  following  is  from  a  circular  : 

"Fine  all-meat  fish  food,  specially  manufactured  for 
feeding  fish  from  the  time  the  young  fry  are  hatched. 
Used  with  the  greatest  success  at  the  Caistor  Fish 
Farm,  Lincolnshire,  England,  and  at  many  other  places. 
Manufactured  in  five  different  grades — Nos.  o,  i,  2,  3 
and  4.  No.  o,  finest  ground  for  feeding  young  fry  in 
the  boxes,  up  to  two  months  old ;  No.  i,  for  feeding  fish 
from  two  to  five  months  old;  No.  2,  for  feeding  fish 
from  five  to  eight  months  old ;  No.  3,  for  feeding  fish 
from  nine  to  twelve  months  old ;  No.  4,  for  feeding  big 
fish. 

"Note. — No.  4  should  be  soaked  before  it  is  given  to 
fish.  Nos.  i,  2  and  3  should  not  be  soaked,  but  simply 
thrown  lightly  on  the  water.  The  fish  will  take  the 
food  as  it  gradually  sinks  to  the  bottom.  Fish  should 
not  have  anything  coarser  than  No.  o  for  the  first  two 
months  after  they  are  hatched." 

The  food  smells  rancid,  and  the  floating  qualities  of 
some  of  it  let  it  go  to  the  outlet  uneaten.  As  this  food 
appears  to  be  made  from  a  whole  horse  thrown  into  a 
grinder,  of  course  the  bone  cannot  be  separated.  The 
bone  is  good  for  poultry,  but  is  too  sharp  for'the  in- 
testines of  a  trout,  young  or  old. 


Trout  Breeding.  137 


WHAT  OTHERS  SAY  ABOUT  FOOD. 

In  1891,  with  this  book  in  mind,  I  sent  out  a  circular 
which  contained  eight  questions  regarding  trout  cul- 
ture. As  the  answers  relate  to  different  chapters,  I 
will  divide  them.  Most  unfortunately,  I  put  two  ques- 
tions in  one — (No.  7) — which  asked:  "If  you  breed 
trout  for  market,  do  you  find  that  it  pays;  and  if  so, 
what  do  you  feed  the  adult  fish  and  at  what  cost?1' 
Many  fishculturists,  especially  those  connected  with  the 
Government  or  State  hatcheries,  merely  replied:  "I  do 
not  raise  trout  for  market,"  and  let  the  main  question  go 
unanswered. 

Here  are  some  answers : 

"I  feed  on  shrimp  and  branch  minnows,  suckers, 
carp,  etc." — E.  M.  Robinson,  Superintendent  Mammoth 
Springs  Hatchery,  U.  S.  F.  C.,  May  26,  1891. 

Albert  Rackow,  Elmont,  Long  Island,  N.  Y.,  says: 
"I  feed  my  trout  on  beefs'  hearts  and  minnows ;  grow- 
ing 8,000  trout  every  year,  and  it  pays  a  profit." 

W.  L.  Gilbert,  Old  Colony  Trout  Ponds,  Plymouth, 
Mass. — "Yes,  it  pays.  We  feed  sheep's  plucks,  which 
cost  about  one  cent  per  pound  at  the  hatchery." 

G.  Hansen,  Osceola  Mills,  Polk  County,  Wis. — 
"There  is  no  money  in  feeding  trout  to  two  and  three 
years  old  and  then  sell  them  for  50  cents  per  pound  in 
the  markets.  It  pays  better  to  build  bigger  ponds — 
say  one  to  five  acres — where  the  fish  can  get  natural 
food,  and  then  have  sportsmen  come  and  fish  for  them, 
at  say  25  cents  per  pound.  In  this  case  there  is  no  food 
to  buy  and  sportsmen  near  by  can  board  with  the  pro- 
prietor. I  had  fishermen  here  who-  took  in  this  way, 
in  one  day,  150  pounds  of  trout,  and  paid  us  at  the 


138     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

same  time  for  board.     If  a  pond  is  handled  in  this 
manner  I  think  there  is  money  in  it." 


CHAPTER  XL 

PLANTING  FRY. 

The  proper  time  for  planting  fry  is  just  previous  to 
their  first  taking  of  food;  in  other  words,  before  the 
yolk  sack  is  entirely  absorbed.  Just  as  they  begin  to 
swim  from  the  bottom  upward  they  should  be  removed 
instanter.  It  will  not  answer  to  wait  longer,  as  the 
first  hatched  will  become  emaciated  and  weak,  and  if 
they  do  not  die  in  transportation  they  will  not  try  to 
secure  food  and  will  soon  perish.  Numerous  failures 
in  restocking  depleted  streams  are  attributed  to  keep- 
ing the  fry  too  long  in  the  hatching  troughs.  The 
most  satisfactory  results  will  always  be  obtained  by 
planting  the  fry,  when  they  have  arrived  at  the  proper 
size,  in  suitable  waters,  where  there  is  an  abundance  of 
natural  food,  and  here  their  instinct  of  self-preserva- 
tion will  develop  the  same  as  in  fish  that  are  hatched 
naturally. 

I  write  this  strongly,  as  I  have  steadily  opposed  feed- 
ing the  fish  and  planting  in  the  fall  as  "fingerlings,"  or 
the  next  spring  as  "yearlings,"  by  the  State  Commis- 
sions, on  account  of  the  expense  being  greater  than  the 
advantages.  The  planting  of  yearlings  has  been  advo- 
cated for  the  past  eight  or  ten  years  and  many  papers 


Trout  Breeding.  139 

have  been  read  on  the  subject  before  the  American 
Fisheries  Society. 

It  may  be  possible  that  one  yearling  trout,  having1 
escaped  enemies  of  small  size,  is  as  good  as  ten  fry. 
Admitting  this  to  be  true,  for  the  sake  of  argument, 
then  I  say  plant  the  ten  fry,  because  it  is  cheaper  to  do 
so,  if  you  are  to  put  out  a  million  or  more  for  some 
State  or  Government  hatchery.  At  the  South  Side 
Sportsmen's  Club,  at  Oakdale,  Long  Island,  N.  Y., 
they  feed  their  fry  until  they  are  yearlings,  remove  the 
screens  and  let  them  find  their  way  to  their  lakes. 
They  have  a  fishculturist  and  one  or  two  assistants, 
who  have  little  else  to  do,  and  the  expense  is  only  for 
food.  Under  the  same  circumstances  I  should  do  the 
same,  while  planting  some  fry  in  the  head-waters  of 
their  many  miles  of  streams.  But,  when  in  chargr.  at 
Cold  Spring  Harbor,  there  was  danger  that  the  State 
Fish  Commission  would  order  me  to  feed  fry  to  year- 
lings and  plant  them,  and  to  do  fhis  would  take  money 
needed  for  new  ponds ;  and  my  only  way  to  prevent  this 
was  by  an  indirect  appeal  to  them  not  to  enter  upon 
such  a  wasteful  course  by  papers  read  at  the  American 
Fisheries  Society,  and  no  yearlings,  except  a  few  sal- 
mon, were  planted  from  that  station  while  I  was  in 
charge. 

Having  called  it  a  wasteful  way  of  planting  fish  from 
a  State  hatchery,  it  follows  that  I  should  prove  the 
charge.  A  man  would  leave  the  hatchery  with  ten 
ten-gallon  cans  of  fry,  5,000  in  each  can,  for  streams 
up  the  Hudson,  and  be  on  the  way  twenty-four  hours, 
often  more.  To  take  5,000  yearlings — and  many  of 
our  yearlings  were  9  inches,  23  mm.,  long — would  re- 
quire him  to  make  five  trips,  for  ten  cans  is  about  all  a 
man  can  attend  to  on  a  long  trip,  reckoning  fifty  cans 


140     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

with  100  yearlings  in  each.  When  you  multiply  his 
railroad  fares,  freight,  cartage  and  wages  by  five  there 
is  more  expense  than  profit  in  the  transaction.  A  trip 
which  cost  $25  would  run  up  a  big  bill  for  five  trips, 
and  extra  men  would  have  to  be  put  on  the  road.  If 
you  have  long  trips  to  make,  plant  fry,  and,  if  neces- 
sary, increase  your  hatching  capacity  as  many  times  as 
may  be  needed.  Nature  plants  fry  enough  to  keep  up 
the  stock  if  man  does  not  interfere. 

I  think  the  yearling  heresy  was  started  by  Mr.  Frank 
N.  Clark,  an  old  personal  friend  of  mine,  but  with 
whom  I  have  usually  differed  on  minor  points  in  fish- 
culture  ;  but  even  Mr.  Clark  has  said  that  he  could  not 
rear  all  his  fry  to  yearlings  because  of  the  expense. 
Then  the  late  Col.  McDonald,  United  States  Commis- 
sioner of  Fisheries,  got  the  yearling  craze  and  ham- 
mered at  everybody  who  did  not  agree  with  him.  He 
was  an  irritable,  autocratic  man,  who  could  not  bear  to 
be  opposed,  and  no  one  in  his  employ  dared  suggest 
a  better  way  of  doing  anything.  To  illustrate  this  let 
me  quote  from  the  First  Annual  Report  of  the  Com- 
missioners of  Fisheries,  Game  and  Forests,  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  for  a  portion  of  the  year  1895,  page  14: 
"Four  years  ago  the  late  Colonel  Marshall  McDonald, 
then  United  States  Fish  Commissioner,  writing  to  one 
of  the  staff  of  this  Commission,  said  of  one  who  was 
an  ardent  'fry'  man  (i.  e.,  one  who  believed  in  planting 
helpless  fry  as  soon  as  they  were  ready  to  feed)  :  'If 
he  chooses  to  attack  the  policy  of  the  United  States 
Fish  Commission  in  planting  yearling  fish,  it  will  sim- 
ply stamp  him  as  unprogressive  and  past  his  period  of 
usefulness.' ' 

This  might  mean  me,  or  it  might  mean  the  Hon. 
Herschel  Whitaker,  of  the  Michigan  Fish  Commis- 


Trout  Breeding.  141 

sion,  who  stood,  and  still  stands,  with  me  on  this  ques- 
tion. Just  why  the  New  York  Commission  saw  fit 
to  quote  this  personal  matter  I  have  no  opinion  to 
offer. 


STOCK  HEAVILY. 

* 

At  the  close  of  1898  I  wrote  the  following  for  the 
''English  Fishing  Gazette" : 

"I  believe  in  stocking  heavily.  Ten  thousand  trout 
fry  to  a  mile  of  stream  filled  with  chub  and  other  fish 
are  as  good  as  wasted.  Make  it  100,000  fry  or  10,000 
yearlings  to  the  mile,  and  then  watch  the  result.  If 
you  do  this  in  some  fished-out  streams  with  the  two 
American  species  named  above,  you  may  hear  from 
them." 

To  this  my  friend  Whitaker  wrote  to  know  if  I  had 
abandoned  my  stand  on  planting  fry,  as  he  saw  that  1 
recommended  planting  "100,000  fry  or  10,000  year- 
lings." My  reply  was  that,  as  some  people  will  plant 
yearlings,  I  wrote  in  that  way,  and  asked  him  to  look 
at  the  New  York  Report  above  quoted,  saying  to  him : 
"We  did  not  attack  McDonald's  policy ;  it  was  he  who 
attacked  ours ;  and  I  do  not  consider  healthy  trout  fry 
to  be  'helpless'  if  planted  at  the  heads  of  streams." 


TIME  TO  PLANT  FRY. 

Fry  must  not  be  planted  or  taken  any  journey  in 
wagons  or  by  rail  until  the  sac  is  so  nearly  absorbed 
that  they  can  sustain  themselves  in  the  water  and  have 


142     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

lost  all  disposition  to  lie  on  the  bottom  of  the  can, 
where  they  are  liable  to  be  killed  by  continuous  shocks 
and  bruises.  Until  the  sac  is  nearly  gone  they  cannot 
bear  handling,  but  they  grow  stronger  as  the  umbilicus 
is  absorbed. 

In  taking  fry,  as  well  as  adult  fish,  great  care  must 
be  taken  of  the  two  vital  points — temperature  and  aera- 
tion. The  temperature  may  be  kept  down  by  ice,  or, 
better  yet,  snow,  for  ice,  if  in  large  pieces  in  the  cans, 
will  crush  many  fish,  while  snow  is  soft ;  an  ice  tray  in 
the  top  of  the  can  is  best. 

As  the  trout  exhaust  the  oxygen  from  the  water 
more  must  be  supplied.  This  is  done  in  several  ways; 
by  using  a  dipper  and  pouring  the  water  a  foot  or  more 
through  the  air ;  by  drawing  off  a  pailful  through  a 
siphon  which  has  a  strainer  of  perforated  tin  or  of 
cheese-cloth  in  the  upper  end,  and  thenjpouring  it  'back 
and  forth  in  another  pail  a  few  times  and  returning  "it 
to  the  can.  With  ten  cans  these  ways  are  too  labor- 
ious, while  an  air  pump  is  useless  unless  you  have  a 
fine  strainer  in  the  bottom  to  divide  the  air  and  keep  it 
from  coming  up  in  large  bubbles,  which  do  little  good, 
and  the  labor  is  too  much.  I  prefer  such  a  brass 
syringe  as  greenhouse  men  use  for  spraying  plants,  with 
a  fine  "rose"  sprinkler  on  the  end ;  one  and  a  half  inches 
in  diameter  and  twelve  to  fourteen  inches  in  length. 
This  is  lighter  and  easier  to  carry  than  any  of  the  other 
implements  and  is  as  effective ;  fill  the  cylinder,  raise  it 
a  foot  above  the  water  and  drive  the  fine  streams  down 
into  the  can.  At  a  temperature  of  40°  Fahr.,  three  in- 
jections to  each  can  every  half  hour  when  not  moving 
should  keep  the  fish  at  the  bottom,  for  when  they  are 
suffering  for  air  they  will  crowd  to  the  surface  for  -it. 
When  they  do  this  it  will  take  continuous  work  for  an 


Trout  Breeding.  143 

hour,  and  hard  work,  to  get  all  the  fish  in  ten  cans 
down  to  the  bottom  again  and  breathing  easily.  Never 
let  them  get  to  the  top ;  treat  them  to  an  aeration  every 
half  hour  by  the  watch,  or  oftener  if  they  need  it,  but 
never  let  them  suffer  for  a  moment. 

When  the  water  is  sloshing  about  on  a  car  or  wagon, 
have  no  more  water  in  the  cans  than  can  be  carried 
with  the  covers  off,  and  they  need  not  be  worked  more 
than  once  in  an  hour  or  two  if  the  water  is  cool.  Take 
extra  care  when  standing  still  for  an  hour  or  more; 
there  is  then  more  danger  of  suffering. 

At  the  place  of  deposit  compare  the  temperature  of 
the  brook  to  that  in  the  cans  by  a  thermometer,  and  if 
there  is  a  difference  of  three  degrees  Fahr.,  set  the  can 
in  the  brook,  adding  a  little  brook  water  occasionally ; 
take  an  hour  to  this  if  necessary,  and  when  you  are 
satisfied  that  the  fry  will  not  be  injured  by  the  shock 
from  a  warmer  or  colder  temperature,  lower  the  mouth 
of  the  can  and  let  them  swim  out.  After  all  your  trou- 
ble and  expense  you  cannot  afford  to  dump  your  fry  in 
a  hurry  and  trust  to  luck  to  their  living  through  a 
shock.  This  is  why  I  always  preferred  to  send  one  of 
my  own  men  to  plant  fry  to  having  the  owner  of  a 
stream  come  for  them.  No  doubt  millions  of  good, 
strong  trout  fry  have  been  killed  by  the  "dumping" 
process  of  some  unthinking  or  ignorant  man  who 
thought:  ''Here's  the  brook  and  there's  the  fish;  dump 
'em  in."  A  man  may  be  a  very  learned  man  and  not 
know  how  to  plant  trout  fry. 

In  1872  I  submitted  a  plan  for  aerating  water  by 
pumps  worked  by  a  band  on  a  car  axle  to  Prof.  Baird. 
This  was  afterward  used  by  Mr.  Stone  in  his  aquarium 
car,  and  was  no  doubt  again  originated  by  him,  for  it 
was  naturally  the  first  plan  that  would  suggest  itself  to 


144     Modern  Fishcultitre  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

one  about  to  transport  live  fish  on  such  a  long  and 
perilous  journey,  as  he  had  undertaken  to  transport  fish 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  coast."  The  above  I 
wrote  for  "Rod  and  Gun,"  and  it  appeared  in  its  issue 
of  February  26,  1876. 

In  1874,  with  Mr.  A.  A.  Anderson  as  an  assistant, 
I  tried  to  get  100,000  shad  fry  from  Holyoke,  Mass.,  to 
Germany,  and  failed.  An  account  of  this  will  be  found 
in  the  chapter  on  "Shad." 


CHAPTER  XII. 

TRANSPORTING  ADULT  FISH. 

The  main  things  in  taking  live  fish  on  railway  or 
other  journeys  have  been  explained.  We  get  oxygen 
from  air,  and  fish  get  the  same  thing  from  water.  A 
submarine  diver  can  stay  down  long  if  air  is  pumped 
to  him ;  if  it  stops,  he  dies  from  the  carbonic  acid  gas 
which  his  own  lungs  throw  off.  The  case  is  the  same 
with  the  fish.  They  are  shut  in  a  can  where  no  oxygen 
can  reach  them  except  what  comes  to  the  water  through 
its  sloshing  about  in  the  motion  of  the  car,  if  the  cover 
is  left  off,  or  such  as  you  may  give  them  by  syringe, 
air  pump  or  other  mode  of  aeration  (see  chapter  on 
"Transporting  Trout  Fry"). 

The  next  important  point  is  temperature.  If  the  fish 
are  taken  from  icy  water,  or  from  spring  water  in  win- 
ter, you  may  ice  them  heavily;  but  if  you  are  taking 
fish  from  a  pond  in  summer,  say  black  bass  or  perch, 


Trout  Breeding,  145 

do  not  reduce  the  temperature  more  than  ten  degrees 
or  you  may  have  either  dead  or  barren  fish  in  your 
ponds.  The  aeration  of  water,  as  before  described,  is 
like  pumping  air  to  the  submarine  diver — it  means  life. 

Large  fish  should  not  be  sent  in  circular  tanks,  be- 
cause they  will  crowd  to  the  side,  which  closes  one  gill 
cover  and  prevents  the  other  from  closing;  hence  they 
cannot  breathe  well  and  may  soon  die. 

Twenty  pounds  of  trout  will  live  four  hours  in 
twelve  gallons  of  water  if  under  40°  Fahr.  Two 
pounds  of  trout  will  live  for  four  hours  in  three  gal- 
lons at  40°. 


SECTION  II. 


OTHER  TROUTS  AND  THE  SALMONS. 

America  is  rich  in  species  of  Salmonidce.  We  have 
the  Sal-mo  solar,  with  its  variety  Sebago,  which  is  the 
only  salmon  of  our  ea'st  coast,  and  is  identical  with  the 
salmon  of  the  west  coast  of  Europe.  Excluding  the 
whitefish  and  its  relatives,  we  have  of  salmons  chars 
and  trouts — and  we  call  all  our  chars  "trout,"  the  fol- 
lowing salmons,  S.  salar,  on  the  east  coast.  On  the 
Pacific  coast  we  have  Oncorhynchus  chouicha,  the  quin- 
nat  or  chinook ;  S.  gairdneri,  the  steel-head  or  salmon 
trout;  0.  nerka,  the  redfish,  blueback  or  sockeye;  O. 
keta,  the  dog  salmon,  and  O.  kisutch,  the  silver  salmon. 

Of  chars  we  have  Salvelinus  fontinalis,  the  eastern 
brook  trout ;  S.  anreolus,  the  sunapee  or  golden  trout  of 
New  Hampshire ;  S.  namaycush,  the  lake  trout  east  of 
the  Missouri  River;  S.  oquassa,  the  blueback  trout  of 
Maine,  and  S.  malma,  the  dolly  varden,  bull  trout  and 
western  char,  of  the  Columbia  river  basin  and  other 
waters  of  the  west. 

Of  true  trouts  we  have  Sahno  irideus,  the  rainbow 
trout ;  S.  fario,  the  brown  trout  imported  from  Europe, 
and  5\  mykiss,  the  "cut-throat"  trout  of  the  west — four- 
teen species,  and  all  of  them  of  value,  more  or  less,  ex- 
cept the  dog  salmon,  which  is  eaten  only  by  Indians. 

140 


Other  Trouts  and  the  Salmons. 
CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE  SALMONS. 


As  all  that  has  been  said  of  the  breeding  of  brook 
trout  is  applicable  to  the  salmon,  there  is  little  to  be 
added  under  this  head.  The  eggs  are  larger  than  those 
of  trout  and  do  not  differ  much  in  size,  while  in  color 
they  are  of  a  beautiful  "salmon"  shade. 

The  United  States  has  a  good  salmon  breeding  estab- 
lishment at  East  Orland,  Maine,  where  parent  fish  are 
obtained  from  the  Penobscot;  but  in  Canada  and  New 
Brunswick  there  are  larger  ones,  which  have  done  grand 
work,  despite  the  opposition  of  some  ignorant  fisher- 
men, who  imagine  that  the  hatcheries  injure  them  in 
some  way.  In  Norway,  Sweden,  Germany  and  other 
countries  the  salmon  is  artificially  cultivated  on  a  scale 
more  or  less  large,  but  our  neighbors  to  the  north  lead 
the  work  in  this  industry. 


THE  PACIFIC  SALMONS. 

Not  more  than  three  of  the  Pacific  salmons  are  of 
much  value.  The  best  is  the  "king,"  or  quinnat  sal- 
mon, Oncorhynchus  chouicha,  and  then  comes  the  little 
"blueback"  and  the  "steel-head/' 

The  quinnat  salmon  was  introduced  into  our  east- 
ern waters  for  a  number  of  years  by  the  million,  and 
distributed  in  the  rivers  from  Maine  to  Texas,  and  not 
one  adult  was  ever  caught  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  In 
this  case  the  failure  was  not  due  to  light  stocking,  but 


148     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

to  the  absence  of  melting  snows  in  early  summer,  which 
in  the  short  Pacific  streams  affects  the  temperature  at 
the  mouths  of  the  rivers.  On  Sept.  10,  1899,  one 
weighing  loj  Ibs.  was  taken  in  the  St.  Lawrence  River 
near  Cape  Vincent,  and  identified  by  Mr.  Livingston 
Stone. 

The  'land-locked  salmon,"  as  it  is  miscalled,  is  not 
shut  in  by  land,  and  can  go  to  sea  if  it  wishes,  but  has 
for  some  reason  lost  this  migratory  instinct.  In  all 
respects  except  migration  they  are  identical  with  S\ 
salar.  Mr.  Charles  G.  Atkins  has  charge  of  the  United 
States  breeding  station  at  Grand  Lake  Stream,  Maine, 
and  has  stocked  many  suitable  waters  in  different  parts 
of  the  country. 

There  is  a  tendency  now  to  give  this  fish  its  Indian 
name  of  "winninish,"  some  clinging  to  the  French 
spelling  of  "ouannanish ;"  but  if  the  French  have  no 
letter  W  in  their  language,  we  have.  They  spelled 
Wisconsin  "Ouisconsin,"  but  why  should  we  do  so? 
Let  us  call  it  "winninish,"  and  spell  it  so  in  a  good  Eng- 
lish fashion. 

The  winninish  has  thrived  when  it  has  been  planted 
in  deep,  cool  lakes.  From  the  New  York  "Sun"  of 
May  13,  1890,  I  clip  the  following: 

"HAMMONDSPORT,  N.  Y.,  May  12. — Lake  Keuka  was 
stocked  with  land-locked  salmon  fry  four  years  ago. 
No  evidence  that  the  fish  had  prospered  in  the  lake  was 
developed  until  last  season,  when  Trevor  Moore  caught 
a  two-pound  specimen  of  the  salmon  near  the  inlet  of 
the  lake  at  Hammondsport.  Others  were  caught  at 
different  points  along  the  lake,  in  each  case  while  the 
anglers  were  fishing  for  other  fish.  A  few  days  ago 
Frank  Costerline  was  fishing  for  bullheads  near  the 
inlet  of  the  lake,  and  caught  three  very  large  land- 


Other  T  routs  and  the  Salmons.  149 

locked  salmon.     A  fourth,  the  largest  of  the  lot,  was 
hooked,  but  broke  the  line  and  escaped." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

OTHER  TROUTS. 

BROWN  TROUT  (Salmo  fario). 

And  now  I  write  of  a  fish  which  is  a  naturalized  citi- 
zen, but,  being  a  recent  importation,  has  not  taken  the 
rank  among  us  which  it  will  work  up  to  in  future  years. 
Confidence  is  said  to  be  a  plant  of  slow  growth,  and  so 
is  reputation.  Recently  Mr.  R.  B.  Marston,  editor  of 
the  London  "Fishing  Gazette,"  said  that  he  believed 
the  brovrn  trout,  Salmo  fario,  to  be  the  best  trout  in  the 
world.  I  agree  with  him. 

Those  who  believe  that  nothing  can  possibly  come 
from  Europe  which  may  excel  any  native  product,  and 
allow  prejudice  to  shut  out  all  things  not  indigenous  to 
America,  will,  of  course,  object  to  this  statement.  Let 
us  compare  the  handsome  char  which  we  call  "brook 
trout"  with  its  kinsman,  the  brown  trout,  which  is  not 
a  highly  colored,  fine-scaled  "char,"  but  is  in  the  genus 
Salmo — a  coarser  fish,  if  you  will,  but  a  grand  one. 

In  support  of  this  opinion  I  will  quote  an  article  from 
my  pen,  written  in  1887,  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  United 


150     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

States  Fish  Commission,  entitled  "Brown  Trout  in 
America" : 

"In  July,  1886,  Mr.  Frank  J.  Amsden,  a  banker,  of 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  sent  to  Mr.  E.  G.  Blackford,  of  Ful- 
ton Market,  a  brown  trout  which  weighed,  on  its  re- 
ceipt, three  pounds.  It  was  taken  in  Allen's  Creek, 
Monroe  County,  New  York,  a  tributary  of  the  Genesee 
River,  which  receives  the  famous  Caledonia  Creek,  on 
which  the  hatchery  of  the  New  York  Fish  Commission 
at  Mumford  is  placed.  This  fish  must  have  been  one 
which  was  hatched  at  the  Caledonia  station  in  March, 
1883,  from  eggs  sent  there  by  me.  These  eggs  were 
the  first  which  were  received  in  America,  and  came  to 
me  as  a  personal  present  from  my  friend,  Mr.  von  Behr, 
President  of  the  Deutscher  Fischerei-Verein,  whose 
headquarters  are  in  Berlin,  and  consequently  the  fish 
was  about  three  years  and  three  months  old. 

"At  the  time  that  these  eggs  were  sent  from  Germany 
Mr.  von  Behr  advised  me  that  there  were  two  kinds  of 
them,  not  species,  nor  even  varieties,  but  merely  from 
different  waters.  One  kind,  the  larger  eggs,  were  from 
trout  inhabiting  deep  lakes,  while  the  smaller  kind  were 
from  the  mountain  streams.  These  kinds  are  probably 
analogous  in  respect  of  size  to  the  fontinalis  of  the 
Rangeley  Lakes  of  Maine  and  those  of  our  other  east- 
ern American  waters,  as  near  as  I  understand  the  case. 
I  sent  to  the  Caledonia  station  eggs  of  both  kinds,  and 
this  fish,  which  was  taken  in  Allen's  Creek,  is  probably 
one  that  escaped  from  the  hatchery,  unless  a  plant  had 
been  made  in  the  creek. 

"In  the  ponds  under  my  charge  at  Cold  Spring  Har- 
bor, we  reserved  some  of  these  first  importations,  but 
lost  the  greater  portion  of  them  from  various  causes. 
Of  the  few  that  were  left  there  was  one  which  was 


152     Modern  Pishcidture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

somewhat  larger  than  its  fellows,  and  proved  to  be  a 
male  fish,  and  was  named  'Herr  von  Behr,'  in  honor 
of  my  German  friend.  In  October,  1886,  when  it  was 
three  and  a  half  years  old,  we  took  it  from  the  pond  and 
placed  it  in  an  aquarium  in  the  hatchery,  which  had  a 
good  flow  of  running  water,  in  order  to  show  it  to  the 
New  York  Fish  Commissioners,  who  were  expected 
the  next  day.  In  the  morning  the  fish  was  dead,  and  it 
now  reposes  in  alcohol,  where  its  size  can  be  admired 
by  visitors.  Its  weight  was  three  and  a  half  pounds 
plump,  or  at  any  rate  of  one  pound  a  year." 

Mr.  A.  D.  Frye,  of  Bellrnore,  Long  Island,  writes, 
under  date  of  March  27,  1887,  as  follows :  "Two  years 
since  I  applied  to  you  for  some  brown  trout  to  stock  a 
public  stream,  called  Newbridge  Creek,  at  this  place, 
and  you  furnished  them.  I  have  by  inquiry  learned 
that  last  summer  some  of  these  fish  were  taken  which 
.weighed  three-quarters  of  a  pound."  According  to 
this,  these  fish  could  not  have  been  more  than  one  and 
a  half  years  old ;  and  from  my  experience  I  think  that 
the  brown  trout,  as  it  is  called  in  England,  and  which 
is  the  common  brook  trout  of  Europe  (Sahno  fario)  is 
a  quick-growing  fish,  which  is  destined  to  become  a 
favorite  in  America  when  it  is  thoroughly  known.  I 
have  taken  this  fish  with  a  fly,  and  consider  it  one  of 
the  gamiest — in  fact,  the  gamiest — trout  that  I  ever 
handled  with  a  rod. 

I  believe  that  the  brown  trout  will  be  found  to  be  a 
better  fish,  taking  it  all  around,  than  our  own  native 
fontinalis.  The  reasons  for  this  belief  are :  ( I )  It  is 
of  quicker  growth;  (2)  it  is  gamier;  (3)  except  in  the 
breeding  season,  when  the  males  of  fontinalis  are  bril- 
liantly colored,  it  is  fully  as  handsome;  (4)  from  what 
I  can  learn  I  incline  to  think  it  will  bear  water  several 


Other  T routs  and  the  Salmons.  153 

degrees  warmer  than  fontinalis,  and  therefore  it  is 
adapted  to  a  wider  range. 

In  the  winter  of  1882-3  I  introduced  the  brown  trout, 
5*.  fario,  into  America.  The  eggs  were  sent  to  me  as 
a  personal  present  by  the  late  Baron  von  Behr,  Presi- 
dent of  the  German  Fishery  Association.  I  had  taken 
the  fish  in  the  Black  Forest,  Germany,  and  had  told 
Herr  von  Behr  that,  if  opportunity  offered,  I  would 
introduce  it  in  America.  Some  years  later  (January, 
1883)  I  was  appointed  to  start  a  hatchery  on  Long 
Island,  and  he  sant  me  something  like  100,000  eggs, 
most  of  which  were  good.  I  had  not  time  to  prepare 
for  their  hatching,  and  sent  some  of  the  eggs  to  Mr. 
Clark,  Superintendent  U.  S.  F.  C,  in  Michigan,  and 
some  to  Mr.  Green,  at  Caledonia,  N.  Y.,  who,  like  my- 
self, was  a  State  superintendent  of  a  hatchery.  Mr. 
Clark  publicly  acknowledged  this  present  of  eggs,  but 
Mr.  Green,  who  never  could  admit  that  there  was  more 
than  one  fishculturist  on  earth,  gave  it  out  that  he  im- 
ported the  eggs  and  took  the  liberty  of  calling  them 
"German"  trout.  He  had  a  way  of  giving  new  names 
to  fish,  deriving  them  from  some  locality,  such  as 
"California  mountain  trout,"  "Oswego  bass,"  etc., 
which  have  mostly  died  out.  The  unfortunate  promi- 
nence which  the  newspapers  gave  him  retarded  fish- 
culture  some  years,  through  his  antagonism  to  Prof. 
Baird  and  all  other  fishculturists.  "Top  rail  or  no 
fence"  was  the  motto,  and  as  he  was  a  "pioneer,"  he 
had  the  backing  of  ignorant  editors.  He  was  a  man  of 
brains,  but  newspaper  notoriety  was  his  weak  point. 


GROWTH  OF  BROWN  TROUT. 

Some  anglers  have  objected  to  the  introduction  of 


154     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

brown  trout  in  our  streams  because  they  grow  too  fast 
and  might  eventually  kill  out  our  native  fish.  To  this 
I  say :  "Let  'em  do  it  if  they  can,  and  the  'fittest'  will 
survive;"  but  they  can't  do  it.  The  chubs,  dace,  pike, 
bass  and  other  fishes  have  worked  this  game  for  cen- 
turies before  a  white  angler  wet  a  line  in  an  American 
trout  stream,  and  here  we  are!  A  trout  is  a  cannibal 
when  he  gets  to  be  three  years  old,  whether  he  is  a  na- 
tive American  or  an  adopted  citizen,  and  it  is  only  a 
question  of  which  fish  matures  in  the  shortest  time  for 
the  angler. 

A  Rochester  paper  said :  "A  brown  trout  was  taken 
in  the  spring  brook  below  the  Caledonia  hatchery  on 
June  i,  1891,  by  F.  P.  Brownell,  which  weighed  eleven 
pounds,  and  as  the  first  importation  was  made  in  1883, 
by  Colonel  Fred  Mather,  it  could  not  have  been  over 
eight  years  old,  at  most.  Brownell  would  say  nothing 
of  the  mode  of  capture,  and  offered  to  sell  it  for  two 
dollars.  Failing  to  sell  it,  he  took  it  home,  and  was 
preparing  to  cook  it  when  Mr.  Annin  dropped  in  and 
saw  it.  Commissioner  W.  H.  Bowman  has  said  that 
he  would  have  given  ten  dollars  for  it  to  send  to  Wash- 
ington to  have  a  plaster  cast  made  of  it,  and  other  men 
would  have  been  glad  to  purchase  it  for  scientific  pur- 
poses; but  it  is  fortunate  that  Mr.  Annin  saw,  identi- 
fied and  weighed  the  fish.  Brown  trout  have  been 
taken  in  England  weighing  as  much  as  eighteen  pounds, 
but  this  one  is  the  largest  on  record  in  America  at  pres- 
ent writing." 

The  so-called  Loch-Leven  trout  of  Scotland  are  the 
brown  trout,  which  differ  slightly  in  color  in  their  na- 
tive waters,  but  show  no  differences  when  hatched  in 
America.  Sir  James  Ramsay  Gibson  Maitland,  Bart., 
sent  many  eggs  from  his  great  fish  breeding  establish- 


Other  T routs  and  the  Salmons.  155 

rnent  at  Howietown,  near  Stirling,  Scotland,  but  when 
grown  the  fish  could  not  be  distinguished  from  brown 
trout.  *" 

Dr.  H.  G.  Preston,  President  of  the  Oxford  Rod  and 
Gun  Club,  whose  preserves  are  at  Eastport,  Long 
Island,  wrote  me  under  date  of  March  29,  1891,  as  fol- 
lows :  "Brown  trout  eleven  and  twelve  inches  long 
were  caught  last  April  and  May,  the  growth  from  the 
fry  you  sent  me  the  year  before."  This  beats  any 
growth  that  I  know  of.  This  club  moved  from  Patch- 
ogue,  some  sixteen  miles  west,  to  Eastport  in  1889,  but 
had  no  fry  from  us  until  the  next  year;  therefore  the 
age  of  the  fish  could  not  have  been  over  thirteen  to 
fourteen  months — truly  a  marvelous  growth. 

The  following  from  ex-Commissioner,  the  late  Gen. 
R.  U.  Sherman,  is  of  interest  as  showing  that  brown 
trout  have  grown  and  bred  in  the  Adirondack  waters ; 
not  as  large  as  elsewhere,  and  this  is  not  surprising, 
for  those  cold  waters  do  not  grow  fish  as  quickly  as 
more  southern  ones  where  the  temperature  ranges  well 
into  the  sixties  for  over  half  the  year : 

"NEW  HARTFORD,  N.  Y.,  Nov.  13,  1890. — DEAR  SIR: 
We  have  been  taking  at  Bisby  lately,  in  our  spawn 
gathering,  quite  a  number  of  what  I  suppose  to  be 
Salmo  fario,  and  have  already  put  on  the  trays  10,000 
eggs.  Some  of  the  fish  are  of  two  pounds  weight,  but 
the  general  run  is  from  one-half  to  one  pound.  We 
planted  in  Bisby  lake  5,000  of  the  5.  fario  fry,  and 
these  fish,  I  suppose,  are  from  that  plant.  Three  or 
four  years  ago  we  planted  in  a  small  spring  pond  flow- 
ing into  Bisby  10,000  fry  of  Loch-Leven  trout  from 
eggs  courteously  furnished  by  you.  The  fry  were  very 
hardy  and  vigorous,  but  we  never  saw  one  of  the  fish 


156     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

after  the  fry  were  put  in  the  pond.  It  is  possible  the 
fish  we  are  now  taking  are  Loch-Leven,  which  have 
come  down  from  the  little  pond  to  the  lake. 

"Very  truly, 

"R.  U.  SHERMAN." 

I  have,  in  another  place,  said  that  the  brown  trout 
and  the  Loch-Leven  trout  are  the  same  fish,  and  so,  too, 
wrote  Gen.  Sherman. 


RAINBOW  TROUT  (Salmo  irideus). 

This  handsome  fish,  which  is  a  native  of  the  Pacific 
coast,  in  the  mountain  streams  of  California  and  north- 
ward, was  introduced  into  the  eastern  waters  by  the 
LTnited  States  Fish  Commission  in  1880,  but  some 
years  before  that  date  the  late  Seth  Green  brought 
some  adult  fish  to  his  ponds  at  Caledonia,  N.  Y.,  and 
bred  from  them.  As  usual,  he  gave  them  new  names, 
for  he  claimed  to  have  two  species,  calling  them  "Cali- 
fornia brook  trout"  and  "California  mountain  trout;" 
but  he  knew  nothing  of  ichthyology  and  could  not  de- 
scribe the  differences,  which,  by  the  way,  did  not  exist. 

This  fish  is  a  "true  trout,"  as  has  been  said.  It  has 
a  very  small  mouth,  for  a  trout ;  is  black-spotted,  with 
a  wide  crimson  band  running  along  each  side.  It  will 
bear  slightly  warmer  waters  than  our  "brook  trout," 
and  therefore  may  be  of  use  in  a  more  southern  habitat. 
They  are  not  as  great  fish-eaters  as  other  trout,  and 
this  is  another  point  in  their  favor.  In  deep  waters, 
notably  those  of  the  Ozark  region  of  Missouri,  they 
have  grown  to  a  weight  of  ten  pounds. 

"Rainbow  trout  will  live  in  warmer  water  than  brook 


158     Modern  Fish  culture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

trout,  and  are  found  in  swift,  rapid  streams  at  85° 
Fahr.,  especially  where  there  is  some  shade;  but  in 
ponds  that  temperature  is  dangerous,  even  with  shade 
and  a  good  current.  In  its  natural  condition  this  trout 
is  usually  found  in  water  varying  from  38°  Fahr.  in 
winter  to  70°  Fahr.  in  summer,  and  in  selecting  a  site 
for  a  trout  hatchery  spring  water  with  a  temperature 
of  42°  to  58°  is  required.  The  rainbow  trout  is  a  su- 
perior game  fish,  a  vigorous  biter  and  fights  bravely 
for  liberty,  though  in  the  east  it  is  somewhat  inferior 
to  the  brook  trout  in  these  respects."  The  above  was 
written  by  Mr.  George  A.  Seagle,  Superintendent  U.  S. 
F.  C.  Station,  Wytheville,  Va.,  for  "A  Manual  of  Fish- 
culture,"  published  by  the  U.  S.  Fish  Commission  in 
its  Report  for  1897 — pages  i  to  340 — and  afterward  as 
a  separate  book. 

When  the  fish  was  first  brought  east  all  the  fishcultur- 
ists  disliked  it,  myself  among  them,  because  its  eggs 
were  not  readily  impregnated,  and  when  one  has  to 
pick  out  50  to  75  per  cent,  of  eggs  he  finds  it  more 
work  than  he  wants.  It  spawned  in  very  early  spring 
or  late  winter,  as  one  chose  to  regard  February  and 
March,  and  many  of  the  eggs  were  hard  and  "glassy ;" 
these  declined  to  receive  the  milt,  being  already  full. 
This  condition  we  now  know  to  be  due  to  the  eggs 
being  over-ripe  and  absorbing  water  somehow  before 
extrusion,  as  they  will  not  readily  spawn  in  confine- 
ment for  some  unknown  reason. 


THE  RAINBOW  IN  ENGLAND. 

Mr.  R.  B.  Marston,  editor  of  the  London  "Fishing 
Gazette,"  asked  me  the  following  questions : 


Other  Trouts  and  the  Salmons.  159 

1.  Has  the  rainbow  trout  become  established  in  any 
eastern  coast  rivers ;  i.  e.,  to  breed  freely  in  a  wild  state  ? 

2.  Has  it  been  good  friends  with  the  other  trout,  or 
has  it  taken  so  much  interest  in  them  as  to  eat  'em  up  ? 

3.  Does  it  rise  well  and  freely  to  the  fly  ? 

4.  Does  it  stop  in  the  rivers  where  planted  ? 

5.  Is  it  better  than  salmon  to  eat? 

To  this  I  answered  as  far  as  my  knowledge  of  the 
fish  went,  and  in  his  issue  of  August  27,  1898,  he  print- 
ed the  following  from  my  pen  : 

''You  evidently  want  a  monograph  on  S.  irideus,  but 
I  am  not  competent  to  write  it,  for  Pve  never  fished 
west  of  the  Rockies,  and  do  not  know  this  fish  in  its 
native  waters.  A  review  of  your  questions  shows  that 
you  only  want  to  know  about  it  in  the  east,  and  I'll  try 
to  answer. 

"i.  Not  that  I  know  of .  The  rainbow  has  been  bred 
in  the  State  of  New  York  for  about  twenty-four  years. 
Most  of  my  books  are  in  storage,  and  I  must  not  try  to 
give  exact  dates,  but  it  was  about  1873  or  1874  that 
Seth  Green  took  young  shad  to  California  and  then 
introduced  the  rainbow  trout  in  the  east.  He  turned 
them  out  indiscriminately,  and  I  stocked  many  streams 
with  them  as  a  superintendent  under  orders  from  the 
Board  of  Fish  Commissioners  of  the  State,  but  I  do 
not  know  of  a  stream  where  they  have  become  estab- 
lished, in  the  sense  that  you  mean.  Adults  are  caught 
here  and  there,  but  I  do  not  know  of  a  stream  in  which 
they  have  sustained  themselves;  but  their  propagation 
goes  on.  They  have  been  planted  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  from  the  cold  mountainous  lakes  of  the  Adirdn- 
dacks  to  the  most  southern  streams  of  Long  Island.  I 
will  refer  to  this  question  again,  after  the  others  are 
answered  categorically. 


160     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

"2.  1  doubt  if  the  rainbow  is  as  destructive  to  small 
fish  as  either  the  brown  trout  (fario)  or  our  own  fon- 
tinalis.  This  doubt  has  two  foundations.  In  confine- 
ment it  has  shown  no  disposition  to  eat  smaller  fish  if 
other  food  was  plenty,  and  its  comparatively  small 
mouth  bars  it  from  taking  some  fish  that  a  fario  or  a 
fontinalis  could  easily  stow  away. 

"3.  Yes ;  it  rises  to  the  fly  well.  I  stocked  the  upper 
of  three  millponds  at  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  Long  Island, 
with  rainbows,  and  when  fly  fishing  below  the  second 
dam  two  years  later  I  took  a  number  of  rainbows.  Mr. 
Livington  Stone,  for  years  in  charge  of  the  breeding 
station  at  Baird,  Cal.,  where  the  fish  is  native,  says 
they  rise  well  to  the  fly. 

"4.  This  may  be  a  matter  of  suitable  water.  My  own 
experience  has  been  mostly  with  confined  fish.  In  its 
native  rivers,  of  course,  it  has  been  true  and  faithful, 
but  in  our  eastern  rivers  there  are  different  conditions. 
The  fish  has  remained  in  some  Adirondack  lakes  and 
grown  large ;  but  whether  it  has  bred  there  and  'estab- 
lished itself  I  cannot  say.  This  is  'the  benefit  of  the 
doubt.' 

"5.  This  is  a  question  of  taste,  de  gustibus,  etc.  The 
rainbow  is  a  good  table  fish ;  but  it  is  a  trout,  and  I  can't 
compare  it  to  salmon  any  more  than  I  can  compare  a 
saddle  of  Southdown  mutton  to  a  beefsteak.  The  rain- 
bow trout  is  hardly  as  good  a  table  fish,  me  judice,  as 
the  brown  trout,  or  our  'brook  trout,'  and  any  one  of 
the  three  beats  salmon  as  a  steady  diet  in  camp,  for 
salmon  is  so  rich  that  it  soon  cloys.  This  is  merely  an 
individual  opinion,  but  it  is  what  you  asked  for. 

"Having  gone  over  the  questions  in  their  order,  I  feel 
inclined  to  say  more.  I  have  seen  the  articles  in  'Land 
and  Water'  of  March  26,  by  yourself,  Mr.  Charles  S. 


Other  Trouts  and  the  Salmons.  161 

Patterson,  M.  B.,  M.  R.  C.  S.,  F.  Z.  S.,  and  the  notes 
by  the  Editor.  As  Sir  Lucius  OTrigger  says :  It's  a 
very  pretty  fight  as  it  stands.' 

"Mr.  Patterson  is  correct  in  the  main,  but  assumes 
that  the  'steel-head  salmon'  (S.  gairdneri)  is  a  salmon,  a 
natural  mistake  to  make  from  its  popular  name.  It  is 
a  big  river  trout,  so  very  like  the  rainbow  in  structure 
and  markings  that  at  one  time  some  ichthyologists 
thought  them  the  same  fish. 

"Since  our  favorite  font-mails  has  refused  to  stay  in 
English  streams,  the  fact  that  iridcus  may  not  have 
established  itself  in  waters  of  the  State  of  New  York 
is  no  proof  that  it  may  not  be  good  in  yours.  Most 
Americans  think  that  fontinalis,  the  char  which  we  call 
'brook  trout,'  is  the  best  trout  in  the  world.  It  is,  in  its 
home.  On  Long  Island  and  in  Canada,  where  it  can, 
it  goes  to  salt  water,  and  comes  back  plump  and  in  ex- 
cellent order,  but  its  red  spots  gone  if  it  stays  there  long. 
Then  in  Canada  it  is  called  'sea  trout.'  In  the  trout 
streams  of  the  Hudson  river  it  is  barred  from  the  sea 
by  the  warm  water  of  the  river  in  summer,  and  in  win- 
ter it  does  no.t  want  to  go  down. 

"When  I  was  engaged  in  fishculture  all  bur  fishcul- 
turists  disliked  the  rainbow  trout  at  first  because  its 
eggs  did  not  impregnate  well,  and  we  had  to  pick  out 
about  75  per  cent,  of  unfertile  eggs.  This  is  not  so 
now.  Then  the  fish  had  been  taken  from  waters  which 
were  colder  in  the  spring,  when  the  snows  above  the 
short  streams  west  of  the  Rockies  melted,  and  it  was  a 
spring  spawner,  for  all  Salmonidce  spawn  on  a  falling 
temperature.  Gradually  the  rainbow  changed  its  habit, 
and  began  to  spawn  earlier,  until  now,  after  some 
twenty  or  more  generations  of  breeding  in  the  east,  it 
spawns  in  the  fall  or  early  winter.  If  you  get  more 


162     Modern  Fishcultnre  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

rainbow  eggs,  get  them,  from  Eastern  America,  where 
the  spawning  habit  has  been  changed  from  spring  to 
early  winter." 

My  answers  were  not  satisfactory  to  myself;  they 
hinted  that  I  was  not  certain  about  question  i,  and  I 
asked  Mr.  Marston  to  send  me  galley  slips.  These  I 
sent  out,  and  the  answers  show  that  I  did  not  know  it 
all.  Here  they  are : 

Hon.  Herschel  Whitaker,  of  the  Michigan  Fish  Com- 
mission, one  of  the  most  able  and  enthusiastic  of  fish- 
culturists,  writes : 

"Regarding  the  questions  which  you  wish  me  to 
make  some  suggestions  about,  will  say,  so  far  as  query 
I  is  concerned:  We  have  had  considerable  experience 
with  this  fish  in  our  State,  and  a  somewhat  peculiar 
one.  Several  years  ago  we  began  stocking  streams, 
and  after  a  few  years  became  utterly  discouraged  be- 
cause of  their  non-appearance,  and  became  convinced 
there  was  no  use  continuing  the  work  and  quit  it,  liber- 
ating the  stock  fish  we  had  in  a  water  near  by  the  hatch- 
ery. In  the  course  of  a  few  seasons  we  were  astonished 
to  find  that  in  some  of  our  better  rivers  the  rainbow  was 
showing  up  magnificently  and  spawning.  The  fish 
soon  became  so  popular  with  sportsmen  that  we  again 
secured  a  stock  of  fish,  and  have  since  been  stocking 
waters  to  which  they  take  kindly,  which  are  our  larger 
streams,  that  afford  deep  pools,  where  they  seem  to 
remain  most  of  the  year,  although  in  June  and  July 
many  small  rainbows  are  taken  on  the  riffles.  It  is  now 
thoroughly  established  in  several  of  our  rivers,  and  is 
the  fish  all  anglers  are  looking  for.  Its  edible  quali- 
ties, in  my  opinion,  are  not  to  be  compared  with  the 
brook  trout,  but  he  is  a  fighter  from  way  back. 

"So  far  as  its  being  good  friends  with  the  brook  trout 


Other  Trouts  and  the  Salmons.  163 

is  concerned,  I  am  inclined  to  think  he  is  a  very  good 
friend  of  the  smaller  brook  trout — in  fact,  takes  him  in 
whenever  opportunity  offers.  I  think  big  fish  that  are 
piscivorous  prey  on  other  fish  at  all  times  when  pos- 
sible, and  the  rainbow  is  no  exception  in  this  regard. 
One  of  the  most  successful  bait  fishermen  I  know 
fishes  much  for  the  rainbow,  and  his  most  tempting 
and  successful  lure  is  the  chub  or  shiner ;  so  there  is  no 
question  as  to  the  rainbow's  proclivities  in  this  regard. 
As  to  question  2,  I  should  say  he  did  rise  most  mag- 
nificently, especially  from  5  o'clock  on  to  10  P.  M.,  dur- 
ing July  and  August — and  then  you  have  trouble  if  he 
is  a  big  one. 

"Answering  query  4,  will  say  that  it  does  stop  in  suit- 
able streams,  and  is  apparently  content  with  its  sur- 
roundings." 

Mr.  Frank  N.  Clark,  Superintendent  of  the  U.  S. 
F.  C.  stations  in  Michigan,  writes  from  Northville : 

"In  response  to  your  letter  under  date  of  February  4, 
in  reference  to  rainbow  trout,  and  in  answer  to  ques- 
tion No.  i,  I  would  say  that  the  Au  Sable  and  the  Pere 
Marquette  rivers  of-  Michigan  are  well  stocked  with 
rainbow  trout.  One  year  ago  last  fall  I  had  a  camp 
on  the  Au  Sable  River  for  the  purpose  of  getting  a 
stock  of  brook  trout  eggs,  and  upward  of  10,000 
spawners  were  secured;  and  at  each  haul  we  would 
catch  from  500  to  2,000  rainbow  trout  which  were 
hatched  out  the  spring  before.  In  the  Au  Sable,  then, 
the  presence  of  rainbow  trout  in  large  numbers  has  evi- 
dently been  established.  The  Pere  Marquette  River  is 
practically  the  same,  and  there  are  other  streams  in 
Michigan  where  rainbow  trout  are  quite  plentiful.  They 
seem  to  stay  in  the  Michigan  streams  and  do  not  go 
out  into  Lake  Michigan.  Large  quantities,  however, 


164     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

are  found  away  below  the  point  where  brook  trout  are, 
and  during  the  spawning  season,  which  begins  about 
February  I,  they  go  up  stream,  and  all  the  way  between 
Wakeley's  Point  and  Stephan's  Point  (which  is  a  dis- 
tance of  about  seven  or  eight  miles)  they  make  beds  for 
the  purpose  of  spawning." 

Mr.  W.  de  C.  Ravenel,  of  the  U.  S.  F.  C,  says : 
"In  response  to  your  letter  with  reference  to  rainbow 
trout  in  streams  of  the  east,  I  regret  that  I  cannot  give 
you  as  definite  information  as  I  should  like.  I  pre- 
sume that  by  the  east  you  mean  streams  east  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada — that  is,  streams  in  which  the  rainbow 
trout  was  not  indigenous.  Commencing  with  Wyo- 
ming, I  would  refer  you  to  the  reports  of  their  State 
Commission,  which  show  that  rainbow  trout  are  nu- 
merous in  several  streams,  as  a  result  of  plants  made  by 
their  State  Commission  and  by  the  United  States  Com- 
mission. At  one  haul  of  the  seine  hundreds  of  fish 
from  three  to  eight  pounds  in  weight  have  been  taken. 
In  Colorado  the  rainbow  trout  is  thoroughly  established 
in  various  branches  of  the  Platte  River,  also  in  Twin 
Lakes  and  a  number  of  other  lakes.  In  the  Ozark  re- 
gions of  Missouri  and  Arkansas  numbers  of  streams 
have  been  thoroughly  stocked  and  the  trout  are  doing 
well.  In  Iowa,  Mr.  R.  S.  Johnson,  the  superintendent 
of  our  station  there,  reports  the  collection  of  adult  rain- 
bow trout  in  several  streams.  In  Michigan,  in  the  Au 
Sable  River,  trout  weighing  from  five  to  seven  pounds 
are  frequently  taken.  The  Au  Sable  many  years  ago 
was  a  grayling  stream  ;  but  rainbow,  brook  and  grayling 
are  now  caught  in  the  same  localities. 

"In  Eastern  Tennessee,  in  the  Jack  River,  rainbow 
trout  are  thoroughly  established,  and  are  reproducing; 
and  in  a  number  of  rivers  in  North  Carolina  the  same 


Other  T routs  and  the  Salmons.  165 

conditions  exist.  M.  C.  Toms,  of  Hendersonville,  N. 
C.,  on  February  6,  1896,  wrote  us  with  reference  to  the 
success  attained  in  Green  River  from  fish  planted  from 
the  Wytheville,  Virginia,  station.  Mr.  J.  D.  Phipps, 
of  Longs  Gap,  Grayson  County,  Virginia,  reports  Peach 
Bottom  Creek  as  splendidly  stocked,  fish  having  been 
caught  there  measuring  twenty-two  inches  in  length. 
He  speaks  of  them  as  fine  game  fish,  and  reports  that 
the  increase  in  numbers  has  been  great.  Mr.  W.  K. 
Hancock,  writing  from  Colorado,  makes  the  following 
statement :  'In  the  streams  throughout  this  part  of 
the  country  rainbow  trout  are  not  very  plentiful,  and 
their  average  size  would  be  from  three  to  five  fish  to  the 
pound ;  but  occasionally  one  will  be  taken  weighing 
from  one-half  to  three-fourths  of  a  pound.  Their 
growth  is  very  slow  in  our  streams  in  this  immediate 
vicinity  (Leadville)  ;  in  the  lower  part  of  the  State, 
south  and  southwest  of  this,  they  are  more  plentiful 
and  grow  much  larger.  In  Twin  Lakes,  twelve  miles 
southwest  of  here,  they  grow  to  twelve  and  thirteen 
pound.*.  They  are  very  game  and  are  considered  fine 
table  fish.' 

"A  correspondent,  Mr.  T.  W.  Scott,  of  Rome,  Geor- 
gia, under  date  of  December  17,  1895,  reported  that 
numbers  of  rainbow  trout  were  caught  in  Silver  Creek. 
William  W.  Finney,  of  Belair,  Maryland,  in  a  letter 
dated  April  26,  1895,  refers  to  two  streams  flowing  into 
the  Susquehanna  River  that  were  stocked  some  years 
before.  He  states  that  several  had  been  caught  in  the 
stream  after  all  hope  had  been  abandoned  of  their  being 
found,  and  that  besides  the  large  fish  numbers  of  small 
ones  were  observed,  from  four  to  five  inches  long.  Mr. 
Atkins,  last  spring,  in  a  tributary  of  Alamoosook  Lake, 
near  East  Orland,  Maine,  captured  199  adult  rainbow 


1 66     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

trout  which  had  ascended  the  stream  for  the  purpose 
of  spawning.  These  were  the  result  of  fry  liberated  in 
this  lake  some  years  before. 

"In  addition  to  the  information  given  you,  by  ref- 
erence to  the  Commissioner's  report  for  1896,  pages 
136  to  139,  you  will  find  some  data  on  this  subject,  col- 
lated by  Dr.  Smith.  I  am  also  under  the  impression, 
without  being  able  to  give  you  the  exact  figures,  that 
the  rivers  and  streams  in  the  State  of  Wisconsin  have 
been  very  thoroughly  stocked." 

Other  letters  of  like  tenor  were  received  from  Mr. 
John  G.  Roberts,  Superintendent  of  the  New  York 
State  hatchery  at  Saranac  Inn,  in  the  Adirondacks ; 
Mr.  W.  F.  Page,  Mr.  W.  E.  Meehan,  Assistant  Secre- 
tary and  Statistician  of  Pennsylvania  Fish  Commis- 
sion, and  others;  but  enough  has  been  cited  to  show 
that  the  rainbow  trout  has  come  east  to  stay. 


LAKE  TROUT  (ScilveUnus  namaycush). 

This  species  is  gray-spotted,  the  spots  sometimes 
tinged  with  red.  Its  caudal  fin  is  deeply  forked.  They 
require  colder  water  than  the  brook  trout,  and  in  the 
summer  they  are  only  found  in  the  deeper  waters  of 
those  lakes  which  have  a  depth  of  forty  or  more  feet, 
and  have  large  springs  at  the  bottom.  The  lake  trout 
is  not  much  of  a  favorite  with  anglers  because  it  must 
be  fished  for  in  such  deep  water,  and  its  fighting  quali- 
ties are  inferior  to  those  of  the  brook  trout. 

The  "salmon"  of  the  Adirondacks,  which  one  hears 
of  so  much,  is  simply  the  lake  trout,  sometimes  called 
salmon-trout,  and  often  the  first  part  of  the  name  only 
is  used.  But  they  are  not  salmon  nor  salmon-trout. 


i68     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

A  lake  trout  of  27^  pounds,  from  Raquette  lake,  is 
credited  to  Alvah  Dunning,  the  guide,  who  sent  it  to 
the  Superintendent  of  the  Adirondack  railroad.  It  was 
taken  July  2,  1879. 

Most  people  agree  on  the  excellent  table  qualities  of 
the  Adirondack  lake  trout.  They  are  a  fine  fish,  and  I 
prefer  them,  when  small,  to  the  brook  trout  for  the  pan. 
In  the  spring,  while  the  water  is  cool  near  the  shore, 
these  fish  take  the  fly,  but  in  summer  they  must  be 
sought  in  deep  water,  for,  like  all  deep  water  trouts, 
they  are  sensitive  to  warmth  and  die  soon  from  it.  The 
sabling,  or  German  char,  is  probably  as  sensitive,  and 
our  deep  waters  would  suit  it  very  well.  The  fish 
would  also  suit  the  waters,  as  it  is  a  lake  trout  of  large 
size  with  a  beautifully  colored  crimson  side  and  belly, 
and  a  fine  table  fish.  The  native  trout  of  the  Adiron- 
dacks  can  be  distinguished  from  those  planted  by  the 
Commission  from  parents  in  Lake  Ontario  by  their 
color.  The  skin  is  darker  and  the  flesh  redder,  yet 
ichthyologically  they  are  the  same  fish.  One  would 
think  the  strangers,  having  been  placed  here  in  baby- 
hood, would  assume  the  characters  of  the  natives. 

There  is  a  variety  called  "siscowet"  in  Lake  Superior 
which  is  shorter  and  ''inordinately  fat,"  a  very  doubt- 
ful distinction. 

As  the  brook  and  lake  trout  often  occupy  the  same 
spawning  grounds  at  the  same  time,  there  would  be 
danger  of  mixing  the  breeds  but  for  the  fact  that  brook 
trout  spawn  in  day  time  and  the  lakers  at  night,  and  the 
milt  of  the  male  fish  loses  its  power  of  impregnating 
eggs  in  less  than  five  minutes  after  extrusion. 


Other  Trouts  and  the  Salmons.  169 

CHAPTER  XV. 

HYBRID    FISH. 

All  the  salmonidse  readily  hybridize.  As  an  experi- 
ment in  the  study  of  animal  life  it  was  worth  while  to 
try  this,  but  in  ordinary  fishculture  it  is  a  very  bad 
practice,  for  no  possible  good  comes  from  it  in  the  cul- 
ture of  trout.  This  was  such  a  fad  at  the  New  York 
State  hatchery  at  Caledonia  that  when  the  present  State 
Fish,  Game  and  Forest  Commission  took  charge  of  the 
work  they  found  but  few  pure  bred  trout  of  any  kind 
in  the  ponds.  For  years  bastard  fish  had  been  bred  in- 
discriminately at  that  station  and  sent  out  into  the 
streams.  The  new  Commission  wisely  stopped  this 
work  and  stocked  up  with  pure  bred  fish.  No  such 
thing  was  found  at  Cold  Spring  Harbor  when  I  left  it, 
for  I  would  not  have  a  bastard  fish ;  I  hate  the  name, 
even  if  softened  to  "hybrid." 

At  Mr.  Blackford's  "trout  openings"  I  have  seen 
trout  from  Caledonia  marked  "One-sixteenth  brook 
trout,  nine-sixteenths  lake  trout  and  three-eighths  sal- 
mon." Fishculturists  who  know  how  difficult  it  is  to 
keep  young  trout  from  being  mixed  during  the  first 
year  used  to  smile  at  the  very  specific  amount  of  each 
kind  of  blood,  which  involved  some  bookkeeping  for 
several  years. 

SHAD  AND  ALEWIFE. 

I  have  hybridized  the  shad  and  the  river  herring,  ale- 
wives,  in  great  numbers,  but  there  was  a  valid  reason 


170     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

for  it.  At  the  last  haul  at  night,  on  the  Hudson,  we 
often  got  a  lot  of  spawning  shad,  but  no  males ;  the  net 
would  have  a  lot  of  ripe  alewives,  and  it  was  a  question 
whether  it  was  not  better  to  fertilize  the  eggs  than  to 
throw  them  away.  The  bastards  would  be  eatable,  and 
so,  on  that  ground, ,  the  hybridizing  was  done.  The 
eggs  hatched,  but  I  never  say  an  adult  fish  which  I 
thought  to  be  the  result  of  this  cross,  and  I  worked  the 
Hudson  many  years. 

The  fishermen  learned  of  this,  and  when  they  caught 
a  mattowaca,  as  the  Indians  called  it,  the  "tailor  her- 
ring" (Clupea  mediocris),  which  was  in  the  Hudson 
centuries  before  they  were  born,  they  named  it  "Rebel 
shad,"  a.s  they  first  noticed  it  shortly  after  the  Civil 
War. 

SHAD  AND  STRIPED  BASS. 

Green  claimed  to  have  crossed  the  shad  with  the 
striped  bass,  and  the  Hon.  Robert  B.  Roosevelt,  then 
(1879)  President  of  the  New  York  Fish  Commission, 
wrote  a  long  article  on  the  subject  for  the  New  York 
"Tribune/'7  dated  October  3,  1879.  To  many  persons 
a  fish  is  merely  a  fish,  and  they  would  see  nothing 
strange  in  crossing  one  kind  on  another;  but  fishes 
differ  in  structure  as  mammals  do,  and  the  man  who 
should  claim  that  he  had  crossed  the  dog  and  the  cat, 
the  horse  and  the  cow,  or  the  sheep  and  the  goat,  would 
be  laughed  at.  Animals  must  be  nearly  related  to  inter- 
breed, and  when  you  cross  the  horse  and  the  ass  you 
get  a  mule,  an  infertile  hybrid.  The  dog  and  the  wolf 
may  have  issue,  but  the  dog  and  the  fox  will  not,  al- 
though a  case  or  two  has  been  reported. 

The  shad  with  its  soft  fins  and  serrated  abdomen 


Other  T routs  and  the  Salmons.  171 

differs  from  the  striped  bass  with  its  spiny  fin-rays  and 
hard  scales  more  than  the  dog  differs  from  the  fox  or 
the  cat,  and  as  much  as  the  horse  differs  from  the  cow. 
The  water  where  Mr.  Green  was  hatching  shad  may 
have  been  filled  with  milt  of  shad;  his  bass  milt  may 
have  fallen  on  barren  soil ;  his  eggs  may  have  hatched, 
and  as  he  turned  the  fry  loose  he  may  have  honestly 
believed  that  the  fish  were  the  hybrids  that  he  claimed 
them  to  be,  but  I  do  not  believe  it. 

Since  writing  this  a  correspondent  of  "  Forest  and 
Stream"  asked  some  questions  which  were  referred  to 
me.  At  the  risk  of  repeating,  I  give  his  questions  and 
the  answers. 

"i.  How  far  can  hybrids  be  produced  among  fishes? 
2.  To  what  degree  are  they  fertile,  either  with  one  of 
the  parent  stocks  or  with  each  other?  3.  Do  hybrid 
fishes  occur  in  a  state  of  nature  ?" 

Answer. — i.  No  man  knows  how  far  hybrids  can  be 
produced  among  fishes,  because  comparatively  few 
fishes  have  been  bred  artificially,  and  of  these  the  ex- 
periments in  hybridizing  have  been  mainly  confined  to 
the  salmon  family.  We  know  that  animals  must  be 
closely  related  to  hybridize,  and  that  few  hybrids  are 
fertile.  The  wild  "Canada"  goose  will  breed  with  our 
tame  geese,  but  the  progeny  is  infertile  with  either 
parent  or  among  themselves.  The  same  is  true  of  the 
horse  and  the  ass,  which  can  produce  the  useful  mule, 
without  which  our  armies  would  be  impotent,  and  who 
"without  pride  of  ancestry,  or  hope  of  posterity,"  threw 
his  weight  into  his  collar  and  pulled  the  artillery  out 
of  the  mud.  Horses  would  have  fretted  to  death  at  this 
time,  but  the  mules  chewed  a  splinter  from  the  neck- 
yoke,  received  a  lash  that  cut  in  deep,  heard  the  ob- 
jurgations of  the  driver,*  and  the  battery  went  on. 


172     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

Animals  near  together  often  refuse  to  breed  or  pro- 
duce infertile  progeny,  called  "mules" — for  the  term  is 
applied  to  all  infertile  hybrids,  such  as  crosses  between 
the  goldfinch  and  canary  birds,  and  is  not  restricted  to 
the  hybrid  animal  which  serves  our  armies  as  neither  of 
its  parents  could  do.  The  hybrid  geese  referred  to  are 
"mules ;"  that  term  simply  means  an  infertile  hybrid. 

To  question  No.  2,  I  can  only  say  that  most  of  the 
salmon  family  appear  to  produce  fertile  hybrids,  as  far 
as  the  trouts  and  salmons  are  concerned,  but  no  ex- 
periments have  been  made  to  my  knowledge  with  the 
different  whitefishes,  smelts,  etc.,  which  "belong"  to 
the  family  by  reason  of  some  such  slight  affinity,  such 
as  having  the  second  dorsal  fin  composed  of  fat  instead 
of  rays. 

To  the  third  question  I  will  say  that  I  never  knew 
hybrid  fishes  to  occur  in  nature.  All  animals  prefer 
to  mate  with  their  own  kind.  Nature  abhors  a  mule, 
and  limits  it  to  one  life,  with  no  progeny.  I  have 
known  a  wild  mallard  to  mate  with  a  black  duck  and 
raise  a  brood,  but  the  birds  were  wounded  and  could 
not  fly,  and  they  had  no  choice.  This  was  on  the  Pa- 
munky  River,  Virginia.  Some  men  regard  every  ani- 
mal which  they  are  not  acquainted  with  as  a  hybrid. 
When  the  grayling  was  first  brought  to  notice  in  Ameri- 
ca, a  man  wrote  to  a  sportsman's  paper  giving  it  as  his 
opinion  that  the  grayling  was  a  cross  between  a  trout 
and  a  sucker,  and  that  man  was  a  fish  commissioner  of 
Illinois  at  the  time. 


Other  T  routs  and  the  Salmons,  173 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

BARREN  TROUT  AND  ANNUAL  SPAWNERS. 

Occasionally  we  find  a  female  trout  which  has  no 
eggs ,  at  the  spawning  time.  Many  of  these  I  have 
opened;  some  had  the  little  cluster  which  promises  a 
crop  next  year,  but  three  had  no  sign  of  ever  bearing 
eggs.  The  fish  had  not  spawned  or  the  flabby  sides 
and  swollen  vent  would  have  been  present,  and  there 
was  no  indication  of  these  conditions.  I  paid  little 
attention  to  this  matter  until  I  received  a  letter  from 
Charles  A.  Hoxsie,  Carolina,  R.  I.,  where  trout  are 
raised  for  market.  Under  date  of  Jan.  21,  1889,  Mr. 
Hoxsie  wrote  a  letter,  from  which  I  quote : 

"In  the  fall  of  1887  I  took  some  trout  from  my 
natural  pond,  where  they  had  been  about  a  year,  with 
plenty  of  natural  food.  This  pond  has  four  acres  in  it. 
On  Oct.  i  they  were  put  into  a  spawning  pond,  and 
when  the  time  came  for  them  to  go  on  the  spawning 
races  I  got  spawn  for  a  few  days  when  not  a'  trout 
would  go  on  the  beds.  Upon  examination  there  were 
no  eggs  in  them,  and  I  thought  they  must  have  deposit- 
ed-their  spawn.  I  kept  these  fish  until  last  fall,  when  I 
again  put  them  in  the  spawning  pond,  and  the  same 
thing  happened. 

"A  careful  examination  showed  that  nine  out  of  every 
ten  were  barren,  no  eggs  in  them,  nor  had  there  been 
any,  and  I  concluded  that  they  were  barren  the  year 
before.  This  is  a  new  thing  to  me,  and  I  would  like 
your  opinion.  Have  you  ever  heard  of  such  a  thing?" 

My  answer  was  that  I  had  seen  barren  trout  and  had 


J74     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

some,  but  they  were  not  fish  that  had  been  moved  at 
spawning  time  nor  were  a  large  proportion  in  any  one 
pond  barren — just  a  few  individuals  here  and  there. 
(See  chapter  on  ''Feeding  Adult  Trout.") 

When  I  sent  out  my  circular  to  trout  breeders  to  get 
their  ideas  question  No.  8  was :  "In  your  experience  do 
you  find  that  a  female  trout  spawns  every  year?"  The 
answers  were  varied.  Here  are  some  : 

"Usually  I  have  found  a  few  exceptional  cases  of 
barren  females." — Livingston  Stone. 

"Yes,  with  very  rare  exceptions." — W.  L.  Gilbert. 

"Can't  say/'— W.  F.  Page. 

"I  think  they  do  until  nine  years  old." — E.  F.  Boehm. 

"I  do." — Monroe  A.  Green. 

"No,  the  brook  trout  especially." — E.  M.  Robinson. 

"Some  certainly  do,  as  we  find  in  the  Adirondacks. 
Two  large  deformed  brook  trout  come  to  the  same  bed 
and  spawn  every  year." — J.  G.  Roberts. 

"When  healthy  and  sufficiently  fed,  not  overfed  nor 
underfed,  I  think  they  do.  Insufficient  food  will  retard 
the  development  of  the  eggs.  I  am  certain  that  over- 
feeding as  the  breeding  season  approaches  also  has  a 
bad  effect."— R.  O.  Sweeny,  Duluth,  Minn. 

The  evidence  in  the  case  shows  that  some  trout  may 
be  permanently  barren,  while  others  may  skip  a  year 
now  and  then  or  be  biennial  spawners,  as  some  claim  the 
salmon  to  be.  It  would  be  interesting  to  clip  off  the 
little  adipose  dorsal  fins  from  all  barren  trout  and  see  if 
they  spawn  the  next  year  or  if  they  are  permanently 
barren. 


SECTION  III. 


OTHER  SALMON  I  D;£. 

The  salmon  family  includes  other  fishes  than  the 
salmons,  chars  and  trouts.  This  is  not  the  place  to  go 
into,  the  common  characters  of  the  different  genera  and 
species,  but  we  may  say  that  a  few  of  these  characters 
are  an  adipose  second  dorsal  fin,  stomach  siphonal,  with 
15  to  200  pyloric  appendages ;  no  oviduct.  The  genera 
are :  Coregonus,  the  white  fishes,  seven  species,  and 
Thymallus,  the  graylings,  perhaps  three  species.  Once 
the  smelt  was  included,  but  is  not  now. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

GRAYLING. 

Thymallus. — Some  time  about  1870  Prof.  E.  D.  Cope, 
of  Philadelphia,  discovered  a  few  grayling  among  a  lot 
of  fish  sent  from  Michigan,  and  it  made  a  flutter  among 
anglers,  those  from  England  being  skeptical  about  the 
fish  being  found  in  America.  He  named  it  T.  tricolor, 
I  was  then  breeding  trout  in  Monroe  County,  N.  Y.  In 

175 


176     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

1874  Mr.  Daniel  H.  Fitzhugh,  Jr.,  urged  me  to  go  and 
get  their  eggs.  The  fish  inhabited  streams  in  the  lower 
peninsula  of  Michigan  which  ran  east  or  west,  but  no 
others.  The  books  said  the  fish  spawned  in  March,  and 
so  Mr.  Fitzhugh  and  I  went  on  the  Sable  River  on  the 
28th  of  that  month  and  caught  a  number,  but  they  were 
not  ripe.  I  brought  some  live  fish  back  to  Honeoye 
Falls,  because  I  could  not  wait  for  the  spawning  season, 
and  left  on  April  2.  Then  Seth  Green  tried  it  and  got 
to  the  river  on  April  30,  and  found  that  the  fish  were 
through  spawning.  He  dug  about  100  eggs  out  of  the 
gravel  and  took  them  to  Caledonia,  N.  Y.,  where  his 
partner,  Mr.  A.  S.  Collins,  hatched  a  few,  but  did  not 
rear  them. 

Then  there  was  a  rush  of  anglers  to  the  stream,  for  I 
had  three  columns  on  grayling  fishing  in  "Forest  and 
Stream"  of  April  23,  1874,  and  Norris,  Hallock,  Milner, 
Dawson,  Bowles  and  others  went  for  the  grayling.  The 
next  year  Mr.  Fitzhugh  and  I  were  on  the  river  from 
April  5  to  15,  and  struck  it  right.  (See  "Forest  and 
Stream,"  May  13,  1875,  from  which  I  take  the  follow- 
ing) :  "Of  the  118  fish  taken  four  were  fully  ripe  and 
their  eggs  flowed  freely ;  six  more  yielded  a  portion.  A 
fair  proportion  of  milt  was  obtained  and  the  eggs  were 
packed  in  cups  and  boxes.  A  few  were  given  to  N.  W. 
Clark  &  Son  by  Mr.  Fitzhugh,  and  8,000  were  taken  to 
Honeoye  Falls.  Had  it  been  possible  to  have  stayed  a 
week  longer  we  could  have  easily  got  ten  times  the 
number ;  but  as  my  leave  of  absence  (from  Prof.  Baird) 
had  expired  we  left  Camp  Bowles  on  the  nth  and  went 
up  the  river  to  spend  one  day  fishing  for  yearlings." 

The  eggs  hatched  in  about  twelve  days  after  incuba- 
tion. They  were  small  and  light  in  color,  measuring  8  to 
the  inch.  The  fish  were  small,  with  a  very  small  sac, 


178    Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

They  swam  at  five  days  old  and  took  food  the  next  day. 
I  raised  about  600  yearlings,  which  were  4  to  4^  inches 
long  the  next  spring.  My  trout  farm  was  not  a  success, 
and  in  the  spring  of  1876  the  property  was  rented  to  a 
farmer,  the  large  trout  were  sold  and  I  opened  the 
screens  and  let  all  yearlings  go  into  the  trout  stream 
below.  This  stream  had  100  chubs  to  one  trout  in  it, 
and  if  any  grayling  lived  to  breed  in  it  their  progeny 
stood  a  poor  chance. 

The  adult  fish  brought  down  in  1874  lived  but  never 
spawned ;  they  seemed  to  have  been  made  barren  by  re- 
moval from  Michigan  within  a  few  days  of  the  spawn- 
ing season. 

Mr.  Frank  N.  Clark  made  some  trials  with  grayling 
and  so  did  the  Michigan  Fish  Commission.  Under 
date  of  Feb.  23,  1899,  Mr.  Clark  writes:  "In  response 
to  your  letter,  under  date  of  Feb.  18,  in  reference  to  the 
grayling  matter,  allow  me  to  say  that  I  can  only  refer 
you  to  my  report  to  Prof.  Baird.  You  will  find  it  in  the 
annual  printed  report  of  1884.  I  have  had  specimens 
of  grayling  in  the  ponds  here  from  time  to  time,  and  my 
experience  has  been  that  they  acclimated  themselves  to 
their  surroundings  in  every  respect,  with  the  exception 
of  the  fact  that  their  eggs  never  developed  properly.  In 
many  cases  there  was  ovarian  disease,  and  the  ova  ap- 
parently sloughed  away. 

The  only  way  to  get  good  eggs  is  to  procure  the  wild 
fish  just  a  few  days  before  they  are  ripe ;  then  hold  them 
in  penning  crates,  and  when  they  are  ready  to  spawn 
handle  them  the  same  as  whitefish.  They  cannot  be 
successfully  manipulated  if  held  for  any  great  length  of 
time." 

The  Au  Sable  is  now  a  trout  stream,  but  it  is  said  that 
a  few  of  this  beautiful,  graceful  fish  are  still  there.  Of 


Other  SalmOnidce.  179 

all  the  fishes  I  ever  caught  it  was  my  favorite.  Tender 

mouthed,  it  needed  delicate  handling,  and But 

perhaps  the  memories  of  camping  with  "Dan"  Fitzhugh 
and  his  guide,  Lew  Jewell,  have  something  to  do  with 
this.  A  small  grayling  has  not  the  "magnificent  dorsal" 
which  caused  Richardson,  the  naturalist  of  the  Frank- 
lin expedition,  to  name  the  Arctic  species  T.  signifer, 
the  standard  bearer;  but  it  has  a  square  fin  at  first. 
When  the  fish  is  10  inches  long  the  last  rays  of  the  fin 
prolong  and  are  colored  to  vie  with  the  tail  of  a  peacock. 

There  is  a  grayling  in  Montana  which  Prof.  Milner, 
Rep.  U.  S.  F.  C,  1872-73,  named  T.  Montaniis.  Dr. 
James  A.  Henshall,  Superintendent  United  States  Fish- 
culture  Station  at  Bozeman,  Mont.,  has  been  breeding 
this  Montana  fish.  In  a  paper  read  by  him  before  the 
American  Fisheries  Society,  1898,  among  other  things, 
he  said  : 

"Mr.  Sprague  took  some  3,000,000  grayling  eggs, 
1,000,000  of  which  were  hatched  and  planted  in  Elk- 
Creek  ;  50,000  eyed  eggs  were  shipped  to  the  Manches- 
ter (la.)  station;  50,000  to  the  Leadville  (Col.)  station, 
and  10,000  to  the  United  States  Fish  Commission  ex- 
hibit at  the  Omaha  Exposition,  all  of  which,  by  extra 
precautions  in  packing,  arrived  at  their  destination  in 
good  condition.  About  1,500,000  were  shipped  to  the 
Bozeman  station,  but  many  were  lost  owing  to  a  lack  of 
ice  for  packing  the  eyed  eggs.  Some  green  eggs  were 
shipped  as  an  experiment,  and  though  seemingly  in 
good  condition  on  arrival  at  Bozeman,  they  all  died  soon 
afterward.  .  .  .  About  500,000  eggs  were  hatched 
at  the  Bozeman  station,  and  at  least  50  per  cent,  of  the 
fry  are  alive,  and  most  of  them  are  feeding.  ...  In 
stripping  the  female  grayling  the  eggs  are  a  little  harder 
to  start,  but  are  then  extruded  more  freely  than  in  the 


i8o     Modern  Fishcnlturc  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

case  of  the  trout.  About  3,000  eggs  is  the  average  for 
a  fish  of  12  inches  in  length.  The  eggs  are  white  and 
as  clear  as  a  crystal.  They  are  smaller  than  the  native 
trout  (S.  my  kiss)  eggs,  but  after  impregnation  and  the 
absorption  of  water  will  average  1-7  inch  in  diameter, 
while  the  native  trout  eggs  are  1-6  inch,  and  the  brook 
trout  (S.  fontinalis)  eggs  are  1-5  inch  in  diameter. 

"Soon  after  fertilization  the  eggs  become  glutinous 
and  adhesive,  forming  bunches  or  masses  of  various 
sizes,  when  fungus  rapidly  develops  and  kills  the  egg. 
This  renders  the  work  of  picking  laborious,  but  impera- 
tive." 

The  eggs  of  the  Michigan  grayling,  now  called  T. 
ontariensis,  had  no  adhesive  quality,  and  this,  to  me,  is 
evidence  that  there  is  difference  enough  to.  warrant  the 
Montana  grayling  being  classed  as  a  different  species. 

In  England  trout  and  grayling  have  lived  in  the  same 
streams  for  centuries,  but  the  trout,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, is  vS.  fario  and  not  ^.  fontinalis.  Grayling  also 
inhabit  the  same  streams  in  Montana  with  the  Dolly- 
varden  trout,  both  being  indigenous. 

The  Michigan  Commission  made  persistent  attempts 
to  propagate  this  fish  in  1886,  1887  and  1888  with  no 
success,  although  they  kept  the  fish  under  as  favorable 
conditions  as  possible,  but  got  no  eggs  from  them. 

So  much  for  fact.  Now  for  a  bit  of  theory.  In  ex- 
amining wild  grayling  I  was  at  once  struck  by  the  sin- 
gular stomach,  which  was  so  muscular  as  to  remind  one 
of  the  gizzard  of  a  fowl  or  that  of  the  "gillaroo  trout"  of 
Ireland.  This  latter  fish  is  merely  a  brown  trout  which 
has  thickened  its  stomach  by  feeding  on  caddis  worms 
with  stony  cases  (see  chapter  on  "Insect  Food"),  and 
the  grayling  has  a  stomach  full  of  gravel  and  sand  from 
this  cause.  It  is  possible  that  a  few  might  breed  if  in 


Other  Salmonida.  181 

a  pond  where  this  food  was  as  plenty  as  in  their  native 
streams.     It  is  worth  trying. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE  WHITEFISHES. 

Here  is  a  genus  of  the  family  Salmonida  called  Core- 
gomts,  of  which  the  well-known  toothsome  fish  of  the 
Great  Lakes  called  "whitefish"  is  the  head  of  the  family. 
It  is  C.  clupeiformis,  a  name  which  denotes  its  shad- 
like  shape.  It  does  not  take  the  hook  readily,  although 
such  "accidents"  have  happened.  The  smaller  core- 
goni  are  known  as  ciscoes,  lake  herring,  etc.  Having 
hatched  but  few  of  these  fish  from  eggs  taken  by  others, 
I  thought  best  to  ask  the  Hon.  Herschel  Whitaker,  of 
the  Michigan  Fish  Commission,  to  give  me  something 
on  this  subject  for  the  book,  so  that  the  reader  would 
get  it  from  a  better  authority. 

Mr.  Whitaker  (Feb.  5,  1898)  writes  as  follows: 

MY  DEAR  MATHER — I  inclose  herein  a  chapter  on 
the  whitefish  spawning  as  conducted  on  the  Great 
Lakes,  which  I  hope  may  be  satisfactory.  I  hope  you 
will  find  it  of  some  value  to  you.  It  is  somewhat  longer 
than  you  suggested,  but  I  found  it  impossible  to  keep  it 
within  the  narrow  limits  suggested,  although  it  will  not 
overrun  it  much. 


I  $2     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 
CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE  WHITEFISH  AND  ITS  CULTURE. 

By  Herschel  Whitaker. 

The  whitefish  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  commercial 
fishes  found  in  the  fresh  waters  of  this  country.  It  is 
highly  esteemed  for  its  fine  flavor  and  always  commands 
a  high  price  in  the  market.  Like  the  other  members  of 
the  Salmonidcc,  it  responds  kindly  to  methods  of  artifi- 
cial propagation,  and  its  culture  is  uniformly  attended 
with  the  best  results. 

Its  spawning  season  varies  somewhat,  but  the  month 
of  November  may  be  said  to  cover  the  principal  part  of 
its  spawning  period.  Beginning  with  the  month  of  Oc- 
tober the  fish  gather  on  the  gravelly  and  stony  reefs  and 
shoals  of  the  lakes,  both  in  and  off  shore,  and  hover  on 
about  these  places  until  the  spawning  season  has  closed, 
when  they  retire  to  the  deeper  waters. 

The  females  are  quite  prolific,  the  larger  ones  casting 
anywhere  from  30,000  to  70,000  eggs  in  a  season,  the 
average  in  a  catch  of  from  10,000  to  15,000  being  from 
25,000  to  35,000  to  the  female. 

Two  methods  are  followed  in  taking  the  eggs  for 
artificial  propagation.  The  method  most  generally  pur- 
sued, because  of  the  natural  conditions  surrounding  the 
fisheries,  is  to  take  the  eggs  from  the  fish  as  they  are 
taken  from  the  gill  and  pound  nets  when  they  are  lifted. 
This  method  is  somewhat  uncertain  as  to  result,  and 
usually  the  eggs  taken  in  this  manner  give  a  lower  per- 
centage of  fertilization  than  those  handled  by  the 


Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt 


method  stated  later  on.  If  it  is  possible  to  take  large 
numbers  of  parent  fish  at  the  precise  time  when  the  eggs 
are  fully  matured  and  ready  to  be  cast,  with  an  adequate 
force  of  strippers,  a  good  percentage  of  impregnation 
may  be  secured.  The  season  when  this  fully  ripened 
condition  is  reached  is  comparatively  short,  and  the  un- 
certainties surrounding  the  work  are  so  many  that  re- 
sults are  always  problematical.  The  fish  linger  about 
the  spawning  grounds  for  some  time,  but  the  period 
covered  by  the  actual  act  of  spawning  is  brief.  To  se- 
cure the  highest  percentage  of  fertilization  the  eggs 
must  be  thoroughly  ripened  and  the  impregnation  must 
take  place  under  the  most  favorable  conditions.  Those 
taken  before  this  ripened  time  arrives  give  poor  results 
and  a  low  percentage  of  impregnation,  the  percentage 
depending  upon  the  closeness  to  the  condition  above 
mentioned. 

In  making  this  method  of  collection  a  crew  of  strip- 
pers and  helpers  sufficiently  large  to  handle  the  greatest 
number  of  fish  in  the  shortest  possible  time  is  put  on  the 
fishing  tugs  or  boats,  equipped  with  all  the  necessary  ap- 
pliances for  the  work.  The  boats  go  out  to  the  fishing 
grounds  and  begin  lifting  the  nets.  While  they  are 
being  taken  in  the  gravid  females  are  relieved  of  their 
eggs  and  they  are  artificially  fertilized.  The  same 
method  is  followed  in  the  impregnation  of  the  eggs  of 
the  whitefish  as  in  the  fertilization  of  trout  eggs.  These 
operations  are  usually  conducted  under  many  difficul- 
ties. The  locality  is  the  open  lake  with  the  rough  seas, 
which  are  common  in  the  autumn  ;  the  temperature  is 
usually  about  the  freezing  point.  The  decks  of  the 
boat,  more  or  less  covered  with  ice,  are  crowded  with 
the  fishing  crew  and  the  strippers  and  encumbered  with 
the  usual  paraphernalia  of  the  boat  and  the  utensils  of 


Other  Salmonida.  185 

the  spawn  gatherers.  Work  under  such  circumstances 
is  of  necessity  hurriedly  done,  and  as  the  fish  die  shortly 
after  being  taken,  the  spawn  gatherer  must  make  haste 
in  his  work. 

There  is  another  method  giving  surer  and  better  re- 
sults, although  the  physical  conditions  are  such  on  the 
larger  areas  of  water  that  it  can  be  carried  on  in  but  few 
places  with  any  degree  of  success.  By  this  method  the 
fish  are  impounded  when  taken  and  are  held  alive  in 
confinement  until  the  eggs  are  ripened,  when  the  fish 
can  be  stripped,  with  excellent  results.  The  require- 
ments for  such  operations  are  a  locality  where  fish  can 
be  taken  in  large  numbers,  and  a  sheltered  location 
where  the  pounds  in  which  the  fish  are  held  may  be  pro- 
tected from  the  autumn  gales  and  seas.  Operations  of 
this  character  have  been  carried  on  for  several  years  on 
the  Detroit  River,  and  are  substantially  a&  follows : 

Beginning  with  about  the  third  week  in  October,  the 
whitefish  in  the  upper  end  of  Lake  Erie  begin  a  general 
movement  out  of  the  head  of  the  lake  up  the  river,  seek- 
ing the  spawning  beds  in  that  stream  and  in  the  lower 
end  of  Lake  St.  Claire.  Preparatory  to  this  run  the 
fishing  grounds,  which  are  operated  with  seines,  are  put 
in  readiness  for  the  coming  of  the  fish.  At  each  fishery 
a  number  of  crates,  about  6x12  feet  in  size,  made  of 
2|-inch  strips  an  inch  thick,  are  nailed  to  4x4  scantling 
uprights,  one  at  each  corner  and  one  in  the  middle  on 
each  side,  the  floor  of  the  crates  being  constructed  in  the 
same  manner.  These  boards  are  fastened  to  the  up- 
rights so  as  to  leave  spaces  between  the  boards  of  from 
one  to  one  and  a  half  inches,  to  permit  ?„  free  circulation 
of  water  through  the  crates  and  still  pi  event  the  escape 
of  the  fish.  Inside  each  crate  is  constructed  a  false  bot- 
tom that  may  be  raised  and  lowered  at  will  to  any  de- 


1 86     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

sired  height,  giving  complete  control  of  the  fish  in  the 
crates  and  facilitating  handling  when  they  are  removed 
for  stripping.  These  crates  are  placed  in  the  margin  of 
the  river  near  the  fishery,  in  a  depth  of  water  at  the  ordi- 
nary stage  of  from  four  to  ten  feet,  and  firmly  anchored 
in  position  to  stakes.  They  may  be  placed  in  single  or 
double  rows,  abutting  each  other  end  to  end.  The 
crates  are  placed  convenient  to  the  apron  over  which  the 
seine  is  drawn  in  fishing.  Behind  and  beneath  this 
apron  is  excavated  a  trench  about  8  by  10  feet  in  size, 
with  a  depth  of  water  of  about  two  feet,  with  palings  so 
placed  on  the  riverside  as  to  allow  a  free  passage  of 
water  into  the  trench.  .  The  fish  are  discharged  from 
the  net  directly  into  the  trench  without  being  handled. 
From  this  pound  or  trench  the  fish  pass  through  an 
artificial  channel  or  small  canal  to  the  first  crate  and 
are  subsequently  removed  to  the  other  crates  with  scap 
nets  as  desired. 

From  the  middle  or  latter  part  of  October  the  fish 
taken  pass  over  the  apron  as  fast  as  caught  and  then 
into  the  crates,  where  they  are  held  alive  in  good  condi- 
tion until  fully  ripened,  when  the  spawning  operations 
begin.  The  fishing  is  continued  uninterruptedly  from 
the  beginning  of  the  run  until  the  close  of  the  season, 
hauls  being  made  every  hour,  day  and  night,  with 
double  crews  of  fishermen. 

Experience  has  shown  that  the  mingling  of  the  males 
with  the  females  in  the  crates  is  desirable,  the  contact  of 
the  sexes  tending  to  induce  freer  and  earlier  spawning 
than  when  separated.  About  November  ist  the  females 
show  evidences  of  spawning,  and  the  stripping  begins. 
The  stripper  takes  his  position  on  the  platform  between 
the  crates,  with  a  pan  into  which  the  eggs  are  to  be 
Stripped.  He  is  seated  on  a  low  stool,  with  ordinary 


Other  Sahnonidce.  187 

washtubs  on  each  side,  in  some  of  which  are  placed  a 
number  of  female  fish,  in  others  the  ripe  males ;  other 
tubs  being  used  for  fish  of  both  sexes  not  yet  ready  for 
spawning,  which  are  culled  out  by  the  spawn  taker  as 
he  proceeds.  Two  or  more  assistants,  equipped  with 
long-handler  scapnets,  then  begin  to  take  the  ripe  fish 
from  the  crates,  and  the  stripper  begins  operations. 
With  a  large  number  of  fish  two  or  more  strippers  are 
working  at  the  same  time ;  the  entire  time  of  one  assist- 
ant is  occupied  in  looking  after  the  eggs  when  stripped. 
The  eggs  of  several  females  and  the  milt  from  several 
males  are  stripped  into  the  pan  until  a  sufficient  number 
of  eggs  are  taken,  when  it  is  set  aside,  the  eggs  are 
washed  up,  and  an  attendant  adds  water  from  time  to 
time  as  required  and  as  the  space  between  the  envelop- 
ing membranes  fills  with  water.  The  eggs  are  then 
allowed  to  stand  until  removed  to  the  hatchery,  which 
is  done  once  a  day,  the  eggs  being  placed  in  ordinary 
milk  cans  containing  from  twenty  to  forty  quarts,  ac- 
cording to  the  distance  they  are  carried.  On  arriving 
at  the  hatchery  the  eggs  are  carefully  measured,  be- 
tween three  and  four  quarts  of  green  eggs  being  put  in 
each  jar,  where  they  are  kept  automatically  in  motion  by 
the  water  which  passes  through  the  jar  until  hatched. 
After  the  percentage  of  poor  eggs  has  worked  off  eggs 
are  added  to  the  jars,  each  jar  finally  carrying  four 
quarts. 

The  hatching  period  covers  from  120  to  170  days, 
varying  according  to  the  temperature  of  the  water  and 
the  air  during  the  hatching  season.  During  the  first 
three  or  four  weeks  the  percentage  of  unfertilized  eggs, 
being  of  lighter  specific  gravity,  rise  to  the  top  of  the  jar 
and  are  taken  off  with  a  rubber  tube,  about  a  quarter 
of  an  inch  inside  diameter,  used  as  a  siphon.  The  jars 


1 88     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

are  freed  of  the  poor  eggs  in  this  way  better  than  in 
any  other  manner.  In  drawing  off  the  poor  eggs  in  this 
way  a  small  number  of  fertilized  eggs  are  unavoidably 
taken  off  with  the  poor  ones,  but  the  mass  thus  removed 
is  placed  in  what  is  known  as  "hospital  jars,"  where 
eventually  they  are  separated  from  the  poor  ones  and 
saved.  With  the  Chase  automatic  jar  a  force  of  three 
men  will  care  for  200,000,000  whitefish  eggs  after  the 
percentage  of  poor  eggs  are  worked  off,  until  the  hatch- 
ing season  comes  on,  one  of  the  men  acting  as  night 
watch.  The  only  care  required  during  this  period  is 
to  see  that  the  circulation  of  the  water  is  maintained 
constantly  in  the  jars.  The  average  temperature  of 
the  water  during  the  month  of  November,  when  the 
eggs  are  mainly  taken,  as  shown  by  carefully  kept  rec- 
ords, is  about  38  degrees,  the  minimum  being  32,  and 
the  maximum  about  46.  The  mean  temperature  of  the 
air  during  the  same  time  being  about  36,  with  a  mini- 
mum of  21  and  a  maximum  of  about  51. 

During  the  stripping  the  spawners  are  sheltered  by  a 
rough  board  house;  but  this  is  only  used  during  the 
severe  weather,  and  is  designed  rather  for  the  comfort 
of  the  men  than  for  protection  to  the  eggs,  which  rarely, 
if  ever,  become  chilled  by  exposure  to  the  air.  The 
eggs  are  sometimes,  on  occasional  days  when  the  sun  is 
too  warm  and  bright,  carried  into  this  shelter  for  protec- 
tion from  the  light  and  heat. 

The  hatching  time  arrives,  the  shell  of  the  egg  has 
become  thin  and  weak,  and  on  some  warm  spring  day, 
the  young  fish  having  completed  his  development  in 
the  egg,  feeling  the  irksomeness  of  his  confined  quar- 
ters and  the  thrill  of  a  warmer  temperature,  gives  his 
tail  a  flirt,  and  with  one  supreme  struggle  he  bursts  the 
bands  of  his  environment  and  comes  forth  a  young  and 


Other  Salmonidce.  189 

active  fish,  ready  to  start  out  on  a  new  career  in  a  larger 
field  of  activity.  He  begins  life  well  equipped  with  a 
stock  of  provisions  stored  up  in  a  knapsack  which  he 
tarries  upon  his  belly.  This  sac  contains  a  portion  of 
the  food  on  which  he  lives  for  the  next  fortnight  or 
more  of  his  life,  but  being  small  as  compared  with  the 
bulk  of  his  body,  it  is  no  impediment  to  active  and 
vigorous  movement.  He  belongs  to  what  is  termed  the 
"buoyant"  fishes,  swimming  freely  at  all  times  from 
his  birth,  in  this  respect  differing  from  the  trout  with 
its  enormous  sac,  which  encumbers  its  movements  so 
that  it  lies  for  days  prone  upon  its  side  almost  helpless. 
This  marked  difference  between  the  whitefish  and  trout 
makes  it  possible  to  hatch  whitefish  by  the  hundred 
millions,  while  the  hatching  of  trout  is  limited  to  a  few 
millions,  and  at  a  greatly  increased  cost.  The  white- 
fish  can  be  hatched  in  automatic  jars,  because  when  the 
young  fish  hatches  he  comes  to  the  top  of  the  jar  and 
goes  over  with  the  outflow  of  water,  while  the  trout, 
weighted  down  with  his  heavy  sac,  falls  to  the  bottom 
of  the  jar.  The  specific  gravity  of  trout  eggs  is  greater 
than  that  of  the  whitefish,  and  the  force  of  water  re- 
quired to  keep  them  in  motion  wears  the  sac  of  the 
trout  and  results  in  premature  hatching. 

Observations  made  on  whitefish  fry  at  the  Detroit 
hatchery  for  two  or  three  years  has  settled  beyond 
question  the  fact  that  the  young  fish  begins  to  take 
food,  by  the  mouth,  sometimes  as  early  as  the  third  day 
after  hatching,  and  within  four  or  five  days  quite  free- 
ly. Since  this  fact  has  been  fully  established  the  cus- 
tom has  been  to  put  out  the  young  fish  within  a  few 
days  after  hatching.  They  are  shipped  in  carload  lots 
of  three  to  four  millions  to  the  various  lake  ports 
reached  by  rail,  where  they  are  put  upon  tugs  and  con- 


190    Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

veyed  to  the  natural  spawning  beds,  and  there  care- 
fully liberated,  where  natural  food  is  abundant. 

The  method  of  impounding  whitefish  above  referred 
to  possesses  marked  advantages  over  the  other  method, 
because  the  fish  can  thus  be  held  alive  and  in  good  con- 
dition until  their  eggs  have  all  been  taken.  They  are 
continuously  held  under  observation,  and  when  fully 
ripened  can  be  handled  with  the  best  results.  There 
have  been  seasons  when  the  taking  of  eggs  of  whitefish 
directly  from  the  nets  on  the  open  lakes  has  yielded 
very  unsatisfactory  results,  while  for  the  same  reason 
the  impounding  method  has  given  most  satisfactory 
results.  It  has  been  pursued  continuously  for  years  by 
the  Michigan  and  Canadian  Fish  Commissions,  with 
such  excellent  results  that  it  may  be  said  that  it  is  sure 
to  yield  uniformly  a  large  quantity  of  eggs,  sometimes 
more  than  the  capacity  of  the  hatcheries  will  accom- 
modate. 

In  distributing  the  young  fish  it  has  been  found  best 
to  establish  at  convenient  places  on  the  lakes  what  are 
called  "Relief  Stations."  These  stations  are  operated 
for  only  about  two  months  in  the  last  part  of  the  hatch- 
ing season,  the  eggs  being  removed  to  these  stations  at 
as  late  a  date  as  possible  consistent  with  safety.  For 
the  first  part  of  the  season  the  eggs  are  all  carried  at 
the  home  station,  this  method  resulting  in  economy,  and 
the  subsequent  removal  to  the  relief  stations  makes  the 
distribution  easier,  and  avoids  the  overcrowding  of 
young  fish  at  the  hatching  time,  and  consequent  loss. 


As  one  of  this  family,  the  Adirondack  frost  fish,  has 
adhesive  eggs,  its  treatment  will  be  found  in  Section  V. 


SECTION  IV. 


OTHER  FRESH-WATER  FISHES  WITH 
FREE  EGGS. 

We  place  fish  eggs  in  two  classes — the  free  or  non- 
adhesive  eggs  and  those  which  are  glutinous  and  either 
adhere  to  sticks,  stones,  or  bunch  up,  and  those  held  in 
a  mass.  The  free  eggs  give  little  trouble,  and  only  one 
fresh-water  fish  that  I  know  of  lays  its  eggs  in  a  mass, 
or  string,  and  these  are  no  trouble  at  all. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

PIKE,,    PICKEREL    AND    MASCALONGE 


While  I  believe  that  the  country  would  be  better  off 
if  all  the  pike  tribe  were  exterminated,  there  are  those 
who  not  only  do  not  agree  to  this,  but  actually  breed 
them,  therefore  they  are  given  place  here.  They  are 
ravenous  fishes  —  "fresh-water  sharks"  they  have  been 
called  —  whose  food  is  wholly  fish,  and  they  feed  all  win- 
ter. I  estimate  that  a  lo-pound  pike  (Esox  Indus')  has 
been  at  least  four  years  growing,  and  in  that  time  has 
consumed  fish  as  follows  :  First  year,  to  grow  i  pound, 
40  pounds;  second  year,  at  3^  pounds,  140  pounds; 

m 


1 92     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

third  year,  at  6^  pounds,  260  pounds,  and  in  the  fourth 
year,  at  10  pounds,  400  pounds  of  fish — making  nearly 
half  a  ton  of  fish  to  grow  his  beastly  carcass,  worth  one 
dollar  in  the  market.  Their  digestion  has  been  com- 
pared to  the  action  of  fire,  and  3  pounds  of  fish  per  day 
for  a  lo-pound  pike  would  be  a  light  luncheon.  The 
States  of  New  York  and  Wisconsin  breed  the  masca- 
longe,  but  why  not  the  pike  and  the  pickerel  (Esox  re- 
ticulatus)  as  well? 

I  don't  know  that  pickerel  have  been  bred.  In  1875 
Mort.  Locke  and  I  took  some  spawning  pike,  and  he 
suggested  that  I  hatch  some.  I  impregnated  about  2,000 
eggs,  put  them  in  damp  moss  and  took  them  to  my 
hatchery.  They  were  too  light  to  remain  in  the  troughs, 
and  I  made  a  box  like  Green's  shad  box  and  put  them 
in  a  stream  below.  They  hatched  in  seven  days,  some 
500  of  them,  and  I  then  threw  them  up  on  land. 

When  the  State  of  New  York  began  hatching  mas- 
calonge  at  Chautauqua  lake  the  men  had  an  idea  that 
the  eggs  must  be  at  the  bottom  of  the  lake,  and  made 
boxes  with  double  wire  top  and  bottom,  to  prevent  small 
fish  from  nibbling  any  heads  or  tails  that  might  work 
through,  but  now  they  use  hatching  jars. 


CHAPTER  XXL 
SHAD  (Clupea  sapidissima) . 

This  is  the  finest  of  the  herring  family  for  the  table, 
but  the  most  important,  by  reason  of  its  numbers,  is 


194     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

the  sea  herring  (Clupea  harengus).  Shad  are  a  salt- 
water fish,  and  begin  to  ascend  the  rivers  of  Florida  in 
January,  those  of  North  Carolina  in  February.  In  the 
Hudson  the  fishermen  expect  the  first  fish  about  the 
middle  of  March,  and  so  on  up  the  coast  to  its  northern 
range,  which  Jordan  gives  as  the  Miramachi  River.  It 
only  visits  the  rivers  to  spawn,  and  is  in  its  finest  con- 
dition when  fresh-run  from  the  sea. 

When  there  are  heavy  snows  to  the  north,  which 
hang  on  late  and  then  let  down  a  lot  of  snow  water,  the 
shad  will  remain  in  the  sea  off  the  mouths  of  the  rivers 
until  the  temperature  suits  them,  when  they  will  rush 
up,  and  the  season  is  short  and  the  catch  light.  The 
fact  that  shad  spend  the  greater  portion  of  their  lives 
in  the  ocean,  coming  into  the  rivers  merely  to  spawn, 
is  generally  known,  but  it  has  long  been  a  mystery  as 
to  just  what  part  of  the  ocean  they  located  in  after  leav- 
ing the  rivers. 

Twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago  the  theory  was  that 
the  shad  went  to  the  tropical  regions  after  leaving  fresh 
water,  and  that  they  were  returning  from  those  regions 
when  they  appeared  off  the  coast  of  Florida  in  Febru- 
ary and  gave  off  from  the  migration  a  certain  number 
of  fish  for  each  of  the  main  rivers  as  they  passed  north, 
reaching  the  Hudson  in  March.  Investigations  prose- 
cuted by  the  United  States  Fish  Commission  have 
shown  that  the  shad  don't  go  far  from  the  mouths  of 
the  rivers  which  they  had  previously  entered  for  pur- 
poses of  spawning.  The  investigators  of  the  commis- 
sion have  caught  shad,  in  a  net  specially  constructed 
for  the  purpose,  at  points  in  the  ocean  some  200  miles 
or  so  from  the  mouths  of  rivers.  These  fish  are  ever 
on  the  hunt  for  a  temperature  of  about  60  degrees,  and 
they  go  farther  to  find  a  depth  where  that  f£f  *£££"*• 


Other  Fresh-Water  Fishes  With  Free  Eggs.     195 

vails.  This  causes  the  spawning  season  to  vary,  because 
the  shad  will  not  enter  the  rivers  while  there  is  much 
snow  water  in  them. 

Because  shad  eggs  hatch  in  four  or  five  days  the 
hatching  is  done  at,  or  near,  the  fisheries.  Shad  spawn 
at  night,  usually  before  midnight.  They  seek  eddies 
where  their  very  light  eggs  may  be  kept  from  sinking 
by  slight  currents.  They  spawn  at  the  surface  of  the 
water,  a  pair  coming  up  and  placing  themselves  on  their 
sides,  making  a  great  fluttering  as  they  discharge  eggs 
and  milt  at  the  same  time.  The  eggs  are  not  adhesive. 

At  South  Hadley  Falls,  on  the  Connecticut,  we  re- 
mained on  shore,  and  had  the  fishermen  bring  us  the 
fish,  because  the  water  was  deep  and  the  fish  close  at 
hand.  On  the  Hudson  the  spawn  taker,  in  a  suit  of  oil- 
skins, sat  in  a  boat  at  the  bag  of  the  net,  and  after  wet- 
ting a  pan  to  free  it  from  dust,  would  put  the  head  of 
the  fish  under  his  left  arm,  holding  its  tail  in  the  left 
hand,  and  strip  toward  the  vent  with  his  right,  taking 
great  care  to  leave  plenty  of  space  between  the  sharp 
saw-belly  and  his  hand.  Even  with  the  care  which  expe- 
rience teaches,  I  have  had  the  skin  between  thumb  and 
forefinger  cut  many  times.  ' 

The  pans  would  be  taken  on  shore,  where  an  expert 
would  leave  them  in  the  milt  and  water,  occasionally 
adding  a  little  water  and  moving  his  hand  gently 
through  the  mass  until  he  announced  that  they  had 
"come  up,"  i.  e.  had  absorbed  all  the  water,  and  conse- 
quently milt,  that  they  would  take,  and  were  ready  to 
be  put  in  the  hatchers.  This  he  determined  by  feeling — 
the  eggs  at  first  being  flabby  and  not  to  be  felt,  but  when 
full  feel  hard  as  they  lightly  strike  the  hand. 

In  th'3  '  ~ly  day  we  used  Green's  floating  box.  This 
»^  ,^ith  no  cover  and  a  bottom  of  fine  wire-cloth 


lg6     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

(about  No.  14),  all  well  coal-tarred.  Pieces  of  scant- 
ling were  nailed  to  the  sides  of  the  box  as  floats,  but 
put  at  such  an  angle  that  a  box  two  feet  long  had  one 
end  four  inches  out  of  water  and  the  other  seven  inches. 
When  fast  at  one  end  the  bottom  presented  an  incline 
to  the  current  which  kept  the  eggs  gently  moving,  and 
the  box,  or  gang  of  boxes,  would  swing  with  the  tide. 
There  was  tide-water  where  we  hatched,  ten  miles  be- 
low Albany,  N.  Y.,  but  always  fresh.  The  tide  was 


GREEN'S  FLOATING  Box. 

feeble,  and  had  long  periods  of  slack  at  high  and  low, 
when  the  men  would  have  to  gently  shake  the  boxes  to 
give  circulation  of  water. 

Green's  box  was  good  in  its  day,  and  in  lieu  of  better 
apparatus  may  be  used  now.  The  McDonald  jar  is  used 
by  all  the  State  and  Government  shad  stations  now, 
even  though  they  pump  the  water  for  the  purpose. 
With  Green's  box  we  could  not  remove  dead  eggs  until 
after  they  had  "fungused  up,"  and  this  is  how  we  did 
it :  A  light  wire  frame,  three  inches  square,  covered 
with  millinet,  or  mosquito  netting — the  former  for 
choice — would  be  put  on  a  handle  and  worked  through 


Other  Fresh-Water  Fishes  With  Free  Eggs.     197 

the  eggs,  those  with  fungus  adhering  to  the  net,  which 
was  washed  overboard  and  tried  again.  This  kept  a 
man  at  it  all  the  time,  and  the  fungus  did  the  same ;  the 
cleaning  was  imperfect,  but  was  the  best  we  could  de- 
vise. In  the  jars  the  dead  eggs  collect  on  top  of  the 
moving  mass,  the  outlet  tube  is  lowered  on  them,  and 
out  they  go  before  a  bit  of  fungus  has  formed,  and  one 
man  can  do  the  work  of  ten  as  we  first  did  it. 

Shad  eggs  are  very  delicate  and  will  not  bear  much 
handling.  They  are  sometimes  floated  on  flannel  trays 
to  take  to  a  station,  but  they  must  be  handled  more 
carefully  than  trout  eggs  need  be. 

The  young  shad  swims  from  the -time  it  leaves  the 
shell,  and  is  kept  two  or  three  days  before  turning  out, 
until  its  sac  is  absorbed  and  it  can  take  food.  When 
liberated  it  strikes  for  the  middle  of  the  river,  contrary 
to  the  habit  of  most  young  fishes,  and  escapes  destruc- 
tion there  by  its  inconspicuousness.  It  is  a  mere  shrecl 
of  albumen.  I  have  had  men  look  into  a  lo-gallon  can, 
where  there  were  30,000  shad  fry,  and  declare  that  they 
could  see  nothing.  After  pointing  out  the  little  squirm- 
ing things  the  usual  question  was :  "Do  you  think  they 
will  ever  amount  to  anything?"  As  if  every  shad  was 
not  once  a  mere  "shred  of  albumen.'* 

If  it  had  not  been  for  the  artificial  propagation  of 
shad  the  supply  would  have  long  since  been  exhausted. 
The  increase  of  railroad  facilities  has  widened  the  area 
of  consumption.  Fifty  years  ago  the  distribution  of 
shad  scarcely  reached  Buffalo;  now  it  includes  a  city 
as  far  West  as  Omaha.  The  rivers  are  more  prolific  of 
shad  than  ever,  if  we  except  the  Connecticut,  where 
their  propagation  was  suspended  for  a  number  of  years, 
and  it  is  all  due  to  the  fishculturist. 

There  were  no  shad  on  our  Pacific  coast ;  they  were 


198     Modern  Pishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

planted  there  by  the  United  States  Fish  Commission, 
year  after  year,  and  now  they  are  not  only  plenty  where 
they  were  planted,  in  the  Sacramento  River,  but  have 
strayed  up  the  coast  and  stocked  rivers  of  their  own 
volition,  as  far  up  as  Puget  Sound.  Not  only  that,  but 
shad  have  increased  in  size.  Mr.  Blackford  reports  see- 
ing shad  in  San  Francisco  markets  which  weighed  16 
pounds.  A  few  years  ago  a  6-pound  shad  in  New  York 
markets  was  considered  large,  and  an  8-pounder  a 
"monster."  I  have  seen  several  Hudson  River  shad 
weighing  10  pounds  during  the  past  few  years,  and  this 
was  not  an  uncommon  weight  a  century  ago. 


SHAD   FRY   ACROSS   THE   ATLANTIC. 

Germany  wanted  shad  fry,  and  as  adult  shad  cannot 
be  handled  without  killing  them,  Prof.  Baird  detailed 
me  to  take  them  over,  with  Mr.  Aaron  Anderson  as  an 
assistant.  We  took  100,000  newly  hatched  fry  from 
Holyoke,  Mass.,  on  August  4,  1874,  and  sailed  on  the 
North  German  Lloyd  steamer  Donau  the  next  day.  We 
had  ten  cans  and  10,000  gallons  of  Croton  water  in  the 
steamer's  cemented  water  tanks  below.  We  stood  six- 
hour  watches  and  worked  hard,  through  all  the  horrors 
of  sea-sickness,  but  we  didn't  let  a  little  thing  like  that 
interfere  with  duty.  The  illness  only  lasted  three  days, 
and  the  fry  were  doing  well.  We  then  siphoned  out  the 
dead,  which  were  200,  not  more  than  would  have  died 
in  the  river.  Every  three  hours  each  can  was  one-third 
emptied  and  refilled  with  fresh  water.  On  the  Qth  the 
fish  had  absorbed  their  sacs,  and,  by  their  lively  dart- 
ings,  were  looking  for  food,  and  as  what  they  fed  upon 
must  necessarily  be  small  we  washed  pieces  of  fresh 


Other  Fresh-Water  Fishes  With  Free  Eggs.     199 

beef,  fish  and  liver  in  the  water,  but  to  no  purpose.  My 
diary  of  losses  shows  the  following :  August  5th,  9 ; 
6th,  200;  7th,  1,000 ;  8th,  20;  9th,  100;  loth,  3,000; 
nth,  500;  I2th,  1,200;  i3th,  5,000;  I4th,  the  whole  lot 
of  about  90,000.  We  had  hopes  of  pulling  them  through 
until  the  I2th,  when  they  were  eight  days  old,  and  we 
could  see  they  were  weakening.  We  were  at  South- 
ampton when  the  last  fish  died,  but  went  on  to  Berlin 
and  reported.  If  we  could  have  planted  them  in  the 
Weser  on  the  I2th  it  would  have  looked  like  a  success, 
but  I  think  the  fry  were  then  too  weak  to  take  food. 


THE    BELL   AND    MATHER    HATCHING    CONE. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  shad  season  on  the  Delaware 
in  1875  Prof.  Baird  asked  me  if,  in  my  opinion,  shad 
fry  could  be  taken  to  Germany.  My  answer  was  :  "Yes ; 
if  we  can  hatch  them  en  route,  and  delay  the  hatching 
from  four  to  eight  days,  and  so  get  the  fry  there  before 
they  are  enfeebled  by  starvation;  but  we  don't  know 
how  long  shad  eggs  may  be  retarded,  as  no  one  has 
experimented  in  that  direction,  and  as  they  spawn  on  a 
rising  temperature,  it  is  evident  that  we  cannot  ice  them 
as  heavily  as  we  can  the  eggs  of  Salmonidce." 

The  professor  gave  the  matter  a  moment's  thought, 
and  asked :  "Would  you  like  to  experiment  on  this 
line  and  try  it  again,  if  you  believe  you  can  retard  the 
hatching  and  get  the  fry  safely  over?" 

Then  it  was  settled  that  I  should  try  it  in  my  own 
way,  and  I  began  in  the  basement  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution  with  the  arrangement  here  figured. 

Fig.  i  is  the  experimental  "hatcher."  A  is  the  reser- 
voir furnished  with  a  cock  B,  bv  which  the  flow 


2OO     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

through  the  rubber  pipe  C  is  regulated.  E  is  the 
"hatcher"  with  a  wire  cloth  bottom  at  F.  The  water 
enters  at  D  and  strikes  a  distributer,  Fig.  2  H,  passes 
up  through  the  wire  on  which  the  eggs  lay,  and  out 


fit 

^  -"-^ 


through  the  spout  G,  which  is  provided  with  a  strain- 
er. Fig  3  is  the  arrangement  of  a  gang  of  hatchers, 
each  one  hung  so  as  to  swing  on  a  frame ;  the  frame 
also  can  be  hung  instead  of  standing  upon  legs  if 
thought  advisable.  By  means  of  No.  i  a  valuable 
series  of  experiments  can  be  made  with  water  at  dif- 
ferent temperatures,  and  so  it  can  be  accurately  de- 


Other  Fresh-Water  Fishes  With  Free  Eggs.     201 

termined  in  what  time  the  eggs  will  hatch,  and  how 
low  a  figure  they  will  stand.  The  passage  to  Ger- 
many may  take  twelve  days,  and  two  more  should  be 
allowed  for  travel  there,  making  fourteen  in  all.  The 
eggs  usually  hatch  in  rivers  in  three  or  four  days  at  a 
temperature  of  70°  to  80°.  We  used  no  ice  on  the 
passage,  and  the  water  averaged  about  62°. 

The  idea  in  Fig.  I  was  to  have  a  man  on  duty  night 
and  day  to  pour  the  water  back  into  reservoir  A  a  few 
times  and  then  renew  the  water,  just  as  would  be 
necessary  at  sea.  The  eggs  did  not  hatch,  and  Prof. 
Milner,  who  had  charge  of  all  the  shad  work,  came  to 
see  me.  I  complained  of  bad  air  and  the  proximity 
to  a  rancid  old  whale  skin,  and  when  he  said  I  had 
carte  blanche  to  go  where  I  pleased  and  no  restric- 
tions of  any  kind  would  be  placed  upon  me,  I  girded 
my  loins,  took  Charles  F.  Bell,  a  young  medical  stu- 
dent, and  went  to  Point  Pleasant,  Pa.,  up  the  Dela- 
ware River,  where  I  put  up  my  "laboratory"  on  the 
upper  piazza  of  a  hotel  which  opened  from  our  bed- 
rooms. 

Much  time  was  lost  in  experimenting;  it  was  found 
that  a  temperature  below  55°  Fahr.  was  fatal  to  the 
eggs;  that  the  broad  screen,  placed  as  in  Fig.  i,  did 
not  give  motion  to  the  eggs,  and  that  motion  was  as 
necessary  as  circulation.  The  embryo  developed  to 
a  certain  point,  but  had  no  pigment  in  its  eyes.  Then 
we  had  a  hatcher  made  like  Fig.  4,  with  a  small  screen 
at  the  bottom  of  the  cone.  Eureka !  It  gave  motion, 
and  now  the  lowest  temperature  was  all  we  needed  to 
know.  Prof.  Milner  telegraphed  from  Holyoke, 
Mass. :  "Monroe  A.  Green  and  Welcher  have  ap- 
paratus to  hatch  at  sea ;  if  you  are  not  ready,  will  send 
them."  Bell  advised  that  I  answer  "ready,"  as  the 


2O2     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

temptation  to  go  to  Europe  on  a  free  trip  was  strong 
within  the  boy ;  but  I  was  not  satisfied  about  tempera- 
tures and  did  not  wish  another  failure.  My  answer 
was:  "Not  ready;  let  them  go."  I  do  not  remember 
the  details  of  their  apparatus,  but  do  know  that  their 
eggs  were  all  dead  before  the  ship  got  outside  of 
Sandy  Hook.  The  Rochester  "Express"  of  August 
24,  1875,  gives  Mr.  Green's  opinion  that  jarring  in 


FIG.  4 

Original  Bell  and  Mather  Cone. 

transit  from  Holyoke  to  New  York  killed  the  eggs; 
but,  if  so,  he  should  have  seen  this  before  starting, 
for  he  knew  a  dead  shad  egg  when  he  saw  it.  The 
"Express"  says :  "The  eggs  were  packed  in  ice,"  and 
that  tells  the  story,  to  me. 

After  we  had  worked  out  our  problem,  Bell  and  I 
went  to  Holyoke  and  put  up  our  hatcher  in  the  kitchen 
of  the  hotel,  and  Prof.  Milner  said :  "You've  found 


Other  Fresh-Water  Fishes  With  Free  Eggs.    203 

it !    Here  is  a  way  to  hatch  fish  eggs  in  bulk  and  keep 
them  free  from  fungus ;  get  a  patent  on  it." 

I  do  not  look  favorably  on  patent  rights,  and  espe- 
cially in  fishculture,   where  we  all  use  each  other's 


THE  CHASE  JAR. 

brains  with  more  or  less  credit;  some  never  give  any. 
From  this  sprang  the  "Chase"  jar,  which  was  pat- 
ented, and  also  the  McDonald  jar. 

THE  CHASE  JAR  is  round-bottomed,  with  an  open 
top,  which  is  surmounted  by  a  metal  rim  having  a  lip 
for  an  overflow.  The  water  is  conveyed  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  jar  by  a  heavy  glass  tube  having  a  foot 


2O4     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

with  points  on  it  to  allow  the  water  to  flow  between 
them. 

THE  MCDONALD  JAR  has  a  flat  metal  top  screwed 
down  tight  on  a  rubber  ring ;  through  the  top  are  holes 


MCDONALD  JAR  IN  ACTION.— Fig  i.  Jar  filled  with  eggs 
emptying  into  jar  for  fry,  with  strainer  on  outlet  pipe. 
Fig.  2.  Aquarium  jar  with  strainer  on  outlet  emptying  into 
a  shorter  jar  to  prevent  siphon  from  sucking  dry. 

for  two  glass  tubes,  inlet  and  outlet,  and  these  holes 
have  recesses  to  hold  small  rubber  rings  on  which 
hollow  screws  make  the  holes  water-tight.  Each  of 
these  jars  has  its  admirers. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 
STRIPED  BASS  OR  ROCKFisH   (Roccus  lineatus) . 

As  the  striped  bass  is   for  some  unknown   reason 
called  "Rock"  and  "Rockfish"  south  of  New  Jersey,  I 


206     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

give  both  names.  It  is  a  splendid  fish  for  angler  or 
epicure,,  and  comes  to  the  New  York  market  weighing 
from  half  a  pound  to  sixty  pounds  and  over.  The 
small  ones  are  called  "pan  bass/'  and  sell  for  more  per 
pound  than  the  larger  fish,  which  go  to  restaurants  for 
boiling.  All  the  large  ones  are  females  and  come  to 
market  filled  with  spawn  in  May  and  June.  The  big 
fish  winter  under  the  ice  in  the  Hudson  about  Sing 
Sing,  and  are  caught  there  in  great  numbers.  Where 
they  spawn  in  great  numbers  is  not  known.  If  there 
is  any  grander  fish,  so  easily  hatched  and  so  neglected 
by  the  fishculturist,  I  don't  know  what  it  is. 

Several  men,  as  well  as  myself,  have  hatched  this 
fish  by  accidentally  catching  them  when  hatching  shad 
and  were  fortunate  enough  to  get  a  pair.  I  did  this 
at  Castleton,  on  the  Hudson,  and  at  Fish  Haul,  on  the 
Pamunky  River,  V  irginia ;  but  it  was  accident  that 
brought  them.  They  spawn  in  fresh  water,  but  no 
man  seems  to  know  where  to  get  them  in  quantity. 

Some  years  ago  Mr.  S.  G.  Worth,  of  the  United 
States  Fish  Commission,  reported  that  spawning 
striped  bass  could  be  found  in  numbers  in  the  Neuse 
River,  North  Carolina,  and  I  think  he  hatched  some 
there.  They  may  be  handled  and  treated  as  we  treat 
shad  eggs. 

This  closes  the  list  of  strictly  fresh-water  fishes 
which  we  propagate  that  have  free  or  non-adhesive 
eggs.  All  the  near  relatives  of  the  striped  bass,  such 
as  white  bass,  R.  chrysops;  yellow  bass,  Mo  rone  in- 
terrupta,  and  white  perch,  M.  Americana,  have  adhe- 
sive eggs. 


SECTION  V. 


ADHESIVE  EGGS. 

With  eggs  which  are  free  the  fishculturist  has  plain 
sailing,  but  his  trouble  begins  when  he  tackles  the 
adhesive  ones,  for  after  all  his  care  in  separating  them 
he  never  knows  when  he  may  not  find  them  "all  balled 
up"  and  the  inner  ones  dying.  Ten  years  ago  it  was 
thought  to-be  good  work  to  hatch  30  per  cent,  of  ad- 
hesive eggs,  but  they  do  better  now.  ' 

There  seem  to  be  two  classes  of  adhesive  eggs,  as  I 
have  observed  them  under  the  microscope.  To  my 
astonishment,  I  read  Mr.  J.  J.  Strahahan's  article  on 
the  use  of  the  microscope  in  the  Report  of  the  Ameri- 
can Fisheries  Society  for  1898.  I  have  not  room  to 
quote  it,  nor  the  discussion  following  it.  Mr.  Strana- 
han  advocated  the  use  of  the  instrument,  and  the  fact 
was  developed  that  few  hatcheries,  State  or  Govern- 
ment, possessed  this  necessary  instrument  of  the  fish- 
culturist. How  a  fishculturist  gets  along  without  one 
of  low  power — high  powers  are  of  rto  use  to  him — I 
don't  know.  At  Cold  Spring  Harbor  every  one  of 
my  men  could  adjust  and  use  a  low-pressure  micro- 
scope. The  instrument  was  my  private  property,  and 
I  don't  know  if  there  is  one  there  now  or  not. 

This  may  seem  to  be  a  digression,  but  it  is  not. 

207 


208     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

Only  by  the  microscope  could  one  see  that  the  egg  of 
a  smelt  was  adhesive,  but  not  glutinous.  As  I  un- 
derstand it,  a  glutinous  egg  has  some  sticky  envelope 
which  attaches  anywhere  it  strikes.  The  egg  of  a 
smelt  throws  out  a  sort  of  "foot  stalk,"  which  acts  like 
a  sucker  in  attaching  it  to  objects;  hence  the  distinc- 
tion between  "glutinous"  and  "adhesive,"  at  least  in 
my  vocabulary. 

The  old  plan  was  to  work  the  eggs  by  hand,  through 
sieves,  and  by  more  or  less  violent  means  rub  off  the 
mucous  coating.  Messrs.  Nevin,  Clark,  Page  and  oth- 
ers hit  on  the  use  of  earth  or  clay  about  the  same  time, 
and  Prof.  Reighard,  of  the  Michigan  Commission, 
found  cornstarch  to  be  excellent  for  this  purpose.  I 
had  no  occasion  to  try  these  things,  for  the  only  ad- 
hesive eggs  which  came  my  way  were  those  of  the 
smelt,  which  has  a  foot  stalk  like  a  wineglass,  but 
seems  to  be  capable  of  throwing  this  out  from  any  side, 
and  to  do  it  again  after  one  is  broken  off. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE   ADIRONDACK    FROSTFISH. 

This  small  whitefish,  Coregonus  quadrilatcralis,  is 
a  round-bodied  fish,  as  its  specific  name  implies;  also 
called  "round  fish,"  "shad  waiter"  and  "Menomonee 
whitefish;"  comes  out  of  the  deep  waters  to  spawn  in 
the  streams  in  the  fall  and  is  caught  in  great  numbers 
and  salted  for  winter  use.  It  ranges  from  northern 


Adhesive  Eggs.  209 

New  York  and  New  Hampshire  to  Lake  Superior  and 
Alaska.  It  is  hatched  in  great  numbers  by  the  State 
of  New  York. 

There  are  other  members  of  the  whitefish  tribe,  and 
all  are  worth  cultivating.  Never  having  hatched  this 
fish,  I  made  inquiry  of  Mr.  John  G.  Roberts,  formerly 
in  charge  of  the  Adirondack  station  of  the  New  York 
Fish  Commission.  Under  date  of  March  26,  1899, 
Mr.  Roberts  writes  as  follows : 

"The  frostfish  eggs  are  quite  adhesive  and  very 
heavy.  I  had  some  whitefish  eggs,  and  being  crowded 
for  room  for  my  frostfish  eggs  last  fall,  I  took  a  jar 


ADIRONDACK  FROSTFISH. 

partly  full  of  whitefish  eggs  and  filled  it  with  eggs  of 
the  frostfish.  The  latter  settled  at  the  bottom  at  once 
and  did  not  mix,  showing  them  to  be  very  heavy." 

It  seems  singular  that  species  as  closely  related  in 
structure  and  habits  should  difTer  so  much  in  the  char- 
acter of  their  eggs.  We  find  the  same  thing  in  the 
genus  Morone,  the  striped  bass  and  the  white  perch. 

On  Long  Island  the  tomcod  is  sometimes  called 
"frostfish,"  and  in  other  places  the  smelt  is  so  desig- 
nated, but  this  is  a  fish  which  has  no  other  popular 
name  than  frostfish,  and  therefore  should  be  left  to 
enjoy  it ;  is  one  of  the  "whitefishes,"  sometimes  called 


210     Modern  Fishcnlture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

the  "round  whitefish,"  because  it  is  not  deeper  than 
broad,  but  as  it  has  a  square  body  Richardson  called 
it  Coregonus  quadrilaterale,  and  other  fellows  have 
changed  the  generic  name.  The  fish  is  well  worthy  of 
cultivation  for  food  in  the  Adirondacks  and  is  propa- 
gated there.  The  following  is  from  my  monograph 
on  "Adirondack  Fishes,"  1882:  "This  fish  is  one  of 
several  species  generally  called  'whitefish/  the  type  of 
which  is  the  large  fish  of  that  name  found  in  the  Great 
Lakes.  I  took  them  in  Big  Moose,  the  Fulton  chain 
and  Clear  Pond  (near  Meacham  Lake).  They  are  a 
handsome  fish  and  most  excellent  for  the  table.  They 
do  not  take,  the  hook,  and  are  usually  captured  in  the 
fall  while  running  up  the  brooks  to  spawn,  when  they 
are  taken  in  great  numbers  by  traps  made  of  stakes, 
and  are  salted  for  winter  use  by  those  living  in  the 
woods.  They  are  classed  in  the  same  family  with  the 
salmon  and  the  trouts,  although  they  have  no  teeth 
and  have  large,  loose  scales.  The  presence  of  the 
small  adipose  second  dorsal  fin  and  other  common 
characters  seem  sufficient  to  place  the  genera  Core- 
~vnus,  Argyrosomus  and  Prosopium,  the  whitefishes 
and  so-called  lake  herrings;  Osmerus,  the  smelts,  and 
Thymallus,  the  graylings,  in  the  family  Salmonida." 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
SMELT  (Osmerus  mordax). 

Here  is  a  fish  worthy  the  attention  of  every  State 
Fish   Commission   which  has   lakes   fed   by   streams. 


Adhesive  Eggs.  21 1 

Once  the  smelt  was  placed  in  the  family  Salmonida 
because  it  had  the  small  adipose  second  dorsal  fin. 
It  has  been  removed  from  that  family,  but  keeps  on 
just  the  same  in  being  one  of  the  most  delicate  things 
that  can  be  fried  for  breakfast.  It  grows  to  a  foot  in 
length  in  Maine;  but  one  of  five  inches  suits  me  best, 
as  I  can  eat  it  head,  fins,  tail,  bones  and  all,  and  it  is 
better  than  the  big  ones.  Jordan  gives  its  range  as 
''Nova  Scotia  to  Virginia,  sometimes  land-locked." 
They  live  in  the  fresh  waters  of  Lake  Champlain, 
where  they  are  called  "ice-fish,"  as  they  take  them 
through  the  ice  in  February  and  March.  They  are 
also  found  in  other  lakes. 

The  New  York  State  hatchery  at  Cold  Spring  Har- 
bor is  immediately  below  a  mill-dam,  although  it  gets 
no  water  from  the  mill  pond.  From  the  overflow  to 
salt  water  is  a  shallow  stream  about  20  feet  wide  and 
some  500  feet  long.  The  stream  had  no  fish  in  it  ex- 
cept the  mummychogs  and  an  occasional  trout  that 
escaped  from  the  hatchery  ponds.  I  resolved  to  try 
smelts,  and  for  three  years  sent  men  down  to  a  river 
on  the  south  side  of  Long  Island — we  were  on  the 
north,  on  the  Sound — and  bought  several  hundred 
smelts  in  the  spawning  season,  took  their  eggs  and 
stocked  this  nameless  stream.  After  the  third  year 
we  got  enough  spawning  fish  without  buying  them 
and  stocked  waters  on  Staten  Island  and  in  other 
places.  We  turned  out  many  millions  each  year.  Mr. 
George  Ricardo,  at  Hackensack,  N.  J.,  had  begun 
smelt  hatching  before  I  did,  and  had  met  with  success 
by  spawning  the  fish  on  grass-lined  perforated  boxes 
placed  in  the  river,  letting  the  young  go  free. 

Smelt  eggs  are  adhesive,  as  has  been  said,  but  are 
not  glutinous.  In  nature  it  spawns  in  swift  water,  at 


212     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

night,  and  the  eggs  adhere  to  stones  or  any  other 
thing.  On  a  stream  where  thousands  of  smelt  have 
spawned  at  nighf  not  a  fish  can  be  seen  by  day ;  they 
have  dropped  back  into  deeper  water.  My  first  plant 
of  some  30,000  smelt  fry  in  1885,  m  the  stream  named, 
resulted  in  the  getting  of  over  30,000,000  of  eggs  ten 
years  later. 

A  smelt  weighing  2  ounces  will  yield  40,000  eggs ; 
the  eggs  run  about  20  to  the  inch,  or  about  500,000  to 
the  quart.  At  first  we  took  the  spawn  by  hand  and 
broke  up  the  bunching  by  passing  them  through  a 
sieve  several  times  to  break  the  "foot  stalk;"  but  after 
getting  better  results  from  some  which  had  been  neg- 
lected in  a  hatching  trough,  we  merely  placed  the  fish 
in  the  troughs,  covered  them  from  the  light  and  got  a 
better  impregnation. 

A  curious  thing  in  this  work  is  that  the  fish  laid 
their  eggs  in  the  stream  in  less  than  six  inches  of 
water,  in  direct  sunlight,  and  the  great  increase  shows 
that  they  must  have  hatched  in  great  numbers.  In 
our  hatchery  we  had  to  cover  the  jars  from  even  dif- 
fused light  or  they  would  die. 

Perhaps  nature  provides  for  this  in  the  bunching 
habit.  During  the  first  years  of  experimenting  with 
smelts  I  sent  out  a  lot  to  the  Adirondacks  in  bunches. 
My  instructions  were:  "No  matter  how  decayed  or 
fungused  they  are  on  the  outside,  nor  how  badly  they 
smell,  don't  throw  them  away.  Open  the  bunches  and 
you  will  find  them  bright  and  alive  inside."  The  eggs 
went  up  in  the  Bisby  Lake  region,  but  I  could  never 
get  a  reply  from  the  man  there ;  but  it  seemed  to  me  at 
that  time  as  if  nature  protected  the  inner  eggs  from 
light  and  too  much  oxygen  by  allowing  them  to  ball  up 
in  that  way;  but  then  how  did  the  little  fish  in  the  mid- 


Adhesive 


die  get  out?  Here  is  a  problem.  In  nature  the  smelt 
lays  its  eggs  where  the  March  sun  shines  on  them 
and  they  hatch.  In  the  hatchery  a  mild,  diffused 
light  through  green  window-shades  will  kill  them.  I 
give  it  up. 

SMELT    IN    NEW    HAMPSHIRE. 

Under  date  of  December  n,  1879,  Mr.  Samuel 
Webber  writes  from  Manchester,  N.  H.,  as  follows: 
"The  fresh-water  smelt  has  been  planted  and  accli- 
mated in  oUr  inland  lakes  during  the  last  ten  years, 
and  is  now  very  plenty  in  Winnepesaukie,  Squam  and 
Sunapee,  besides  getting  a  foothold  in  Massabesie  and 
Northwood,  where  we  have  placed  them." 

There  is  but  one  smelt,  and  it  lives  in  both  salt  and 
fresh  water,  but  spawns  in  streams. 

In  "Forest  and  Stream"  of  April  7,  1881,  a  cor- 
respondent, misled  by  the  name  of  "frostfish,"  wrote 
that  the  smelt  was  found  in  many  Adirondack  lakes. 
So  much  for  popular  names. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

THE  BLACK  BASSES. 

The  two  species  are  named  from  the  comparative 
size  of  their  mouths,  and  are  not  at  all  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish if  carefully  looked  at  until  the  characters  are 
fixed  in  the  mind.  Then  a  glance  suffices.  I  will 


214     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

not  go  into  all  the  points  of  difference,  but  by  men- 
tioning the  salient  points  in  connection  with  the  cuts 
one  should  be  able  to  pick  them  out. 


SMALL  MOUTH   (Micropeterus  dolomieu). 

Bone  of  upper  jaw  does  not  extend  beyond  the  eye 
— the  mouth  is  measured  when  shut — color  nearly  a 
uniform  dark  green,  three  bronze  bars  across  cheeks, 
scales  at  base  of  soft  dorsal  and  anal  fins;  smaller 
scales ;  eye  usually  red. 


BIG  MOUTH   (M.  salmoides). 

Upper  jaw  extends  beyond  eye,  color  dark  green 
with  a  distinct  median  band,  below  which  the  color  is 
lighter ;  cheek  bars  not  so  distinct,  no  scales  on  fins, 
scales  larger.  It  is  called  another  name  in  some  parts 
of  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  but  as  it  is  time  that 
was  dropped  I  will  not  mention  it. 

Often  these  fishes  are  found  in  the  same  waters, 
especially  in  large  lakes.  The  big  mouth  is  best  suited 
for  small,  shallow  lakes  with  mud  and  weeds,  but  I 
usually  advise  to  put  in  some  of  each  and  the  fittest 
will  survive.  In  1884  I  put  into  a  lake  at  Cold  Spring 
Harbor,  New  York,  a  bit  of  water  of  perhaps  30  to  40 
acres,  spring  fed,  and  from  2  to  15  feet  deep,  30  small 
mouth  and  4  big  mouth  bass.  The  latter  thrived,  but 
I  never  saw  a  small  mouth  taken  from  the  lake.  The 
fish  had  come  a  long  distance  and  some  had  fungus  on 
them  when  planted. 

THEIR  CULTURE  consists  in  planting  them  and  pro- 


2 1 6     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  WatCY. 

tecting  the  water  for  a  few  years.  They  sweep  nests 
in  the  gravel,  lay  their  glutinous  eggs  in  them v  and 
watch  the  nests,  fighting  off  all  intruders  and  fanning 
the  eggs  with  their  tails  for  circulation.  The  eggs 
hatch  in  four  to  six  clays,  according  to  temperature, 
and  remain  a  day  or  two  on  the  nest,,  plainly  visible  as 
a  dark  mass.  Then,  when  the  sac  is  about  to  be  ab- 
•  sorbed,  they  rise,  and  the  old  fish  remains  under  them 
until  they  disperse  to  seek  food. 

We  cannot  take  their  eggs  and  hatch  them,  and  as 
the  parents  do  so  well  at  it  there  is  little  need  to  try  it. 
If  young  are  needed  for  stocking,  the  nests  should 
be  watched  and  the  young  taken  in  dip  nets  which  are 
lined  with  millinet  or  cheese-cloth. 

The  small  mouth  is  the  best  fish  for  streams.  In 
muddy,  weedy  ponds  the  flesh  of  the  bass,  and  all  other 
fishes,  is  muddy  in  flavor,  and  in  warm  weather  much 
so.  The  two  are  about  equal  as  game  fishes,  notwith- 
standing a  popular  notion  to  the  contrary. 

Lieut. -Col.  Isaac  Arnold,  Jr.,  U.  S.  A.,  made  ex- 
periments in  hatching  black  bass  from  1879  to  1881. 
He  was  then  a  major  and  was  stationed  at  the  armory 
at  Indianapolis,  Ind.  He  let  the  fish  spawn  naturally 
and  removed  the  old  fish  when  the  young  were  hatched. 
In  the  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Fish  Commission 
for  1882,  Col.  Arnold  says : 

"The  male  presses  the  ova  from  the  female  by  a 
series  of  bites  or  pressure  along  her  belly  with  his 
mouth,  the  female  lying  on  her  side  during  the  opera- 
tion. The  male  ejects  the  milt  upon  or  over  the  roe 
from  time  to  time,  and  the  spawning  process  lasts  for 
two  or  three  days." 

A  few  years  ago,  at  a  meeting  of  the  American 
Fisheries  Society,  the  Hon.  Herschel  Whitaker  read 


I 

v_x 

^^ 

en  <N 

cS 

M 


218    ^Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

a  paper  on  "The  Artificial  Propagation  of  the  Small 
Mouth  Black  Bass,"  in  which  he  said :  "An  experi- 
mental station  was  placed  on  the  Thorn  Apple  River 
in  Michigan.  Here  two  ponds  were  constructed  and 
150  adult  fish  placed  in  them.  Last  week  the  female 
fish  showed  disposition  to  spawn.  At  the  same  time 
they  took  a  large  female  from  the  river,  stripped  her 
and  impregnated  the  eggs.  These  were  placed  first 
in  jars  and  then  transferred  to  trays.  On  the  fourth 
day  they  began  to  hatch,  and  on  the  following  day  all 
were  completed,  and  a  few  days  ago  there  were  sev- 
eral hundred  fine,  healthy  fish.  When  they  were  first 
hatched  they  were  almost  invisible." 

Mr.  Whitaker  does  not  say  that  the  male  was  ripped 
open  to  obtain  the  milt,  but,  as  far  as  I  am  informed, 
this  has  been  found  necessary  in  all  such  experiments, 
and  the  impossibility  of  getting  milt  from  the  male  by 
stripping  has  been  one  of  the  obstacles  in  the  handling 
of  the  eggs. 

Knowing  that  Mr.  W.  F.  Page  had  experimented 
with  black  bass  recently  when  in  charge  of  a  hatchery 
in  Missouri,  I  wrote  him  and  obtained  the  following: 


BLACK  BASS  CULTURE. 
By  W.  F.  Page. 

Strictly  speaking,  the  artificial  propagation  of  the 
black  bass  is,  up  to  this  time,  an  unsolved  problem; 
and,  in  my  opinion,  will  forever  remain  such.  In 
other  places  my  reasons  for  this  opinion  have  been 
given  in  full.  Moreover,  in  the  matter  of  the  handling 
and  care  of  the  alevins  (produced  naturally)  and  the 
feeding  of  the  very  young  fry,  only  the  least  fraction 


Adhesive  Eggs.  219 

of  knowledge  has  been  gained.  It  may  be  accepted 
that  up  to  the  time  the  young  black  bass  is  able  to 
forage  on  his  own  account  fishculture  is  a  baffled  art 
and  of  no  account  in  the  multiplication  of  this  species. 
Up  to  that  time  dependence  must  be  placed  in  natural 
spawning  and  hatching. 

Black  bass  which  have  lost  the  shyness  and  fright 
incident  to  capture  and  transportation  become  do- 
mesticated, readily  spawn,  and  rear  their  young  in 
artificial  ponds ;  and  only  by  this  method  can  the  fish- 
culturist  expect  to  secure  any  considerable  number  of 
young  bass.  They  may  be  allowed  to  spawn  in  the 
stock  pond,  from  one-quarter  of  an  acre  or  larger  in 
size,  or  an  annex  spawning  pond  may  be  used.  Dr. 
Henshall  has  given  the  best  description  of  a  bass  nest : 
"Slightly  concaved,  with  a  diameter  twice  the  length 
of  the  fish."  Gravel  is  undoubtedly  excellent  ma- 
terial for  spawning  nests,  though  by  no  means  a  neces- 
sity, for  1  have  frequently  seen  bass  spawn  on  earth. 
I  am  informed  that  the  artificial  bass  nests  devised 
some  three  years  ago  have  not  proved  an  unqualified 
success. 

The  spawning  season  varies  for  almost  every  State, 
and  frequently  in  the  same  State.  Moreover,  the  sea- 
son is  rarely  the  same  in  any  one  locality.  My  ob- 
servations lead  me  to  think  that  the  bass  will  not  be 
found  nesting  before  the  ground  becomes  warm 
enough  for  gardening  purposes,  though  occasional  in- 
stances  of  spawning  on  much  lower  temperature  have 
been  noted.  The  period  of  incubation  averages  about 
nine  days,  and  the  alevin  stage  occupies  about  six 
days  more.  Shortly  after  the  food  sac  is  completely 
absorbed  the  school,  heretofore  guarded  by  the  parent 
fish,  disperses  in  search  of  natural  food1 — daphnia,  cy- 


22O     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

clops,  etc.  If  the  pond  has  been  so  constructed  that 
a  good  portion  of  it  is  shallow  water — from  six  inches 
deep  to  feather-edge — and  is  old  enough  to  have  pro- 
duced a  fair  crop  of  aquatic  vegetation,  the  young 
will  find  abundance  of  natural  food.  When  about  an 
inch  long  they  will  be  found  foraging  on  gammarus 
and  coriza,  and  later  on  larger  crustaceans,  particu- 
larly crayfish  and  smaller  fishes. 

When  a  majority  of  the  crop  measures  one  and  a 
half  to  two  inches  long  it  is  advisable  to  remove  them 
from  the  spawning  pond.  This  period  occurs  before 
the  breeders  have,  usually,  finished  spawning.  To  re- 
move the  early  hatch  without  disturbing  the  late 
spawners,  construct  the  pond  to  have  a  long,  narrow 
neck,  not  over  four  feet  wide,  and  running  to  a  point 
where  the  inflow  enters ;  ten  or  fifteen  feet  from  the 
inflow  separate  the  neck  from  the  pond  proper  by  a 
wire  screen  of  one-quarter  to  three-eighth  inch  mesh. 
The  young  bass  readily  find  their  way  through  the 
screen,  and  show  no  inclination  to  leave  as  long  as 
food  is  present.  The  screened-off  neck  should  be 
closely  watched,  not  only  for  the  numerous  enemies 
of  the  young  bass,  but  for  any  sign  of  cannibalism. 
To  net  the  young  bass  from  the  neck  is  such  an  easy 
matter  as  not  to  require  explanation. 

If  it  is  necessary  to  keep  the  young  bass  for  even  a 
day  before  shipping,  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
that  they  be  carefully  sorted,  and  the  different  sizes 
placed  in  different  receptacles.  If  the  fry  are  to  be 
kept  for  several  weeks,  or  even  days,  they  must  be  fed, 
or  cannibalism  will  surely  reduce  the  number.  Any 
kind  of  fish,  chopped  or  ground  fine,  makes  a  most 
acceptable  food,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  bass  fry  will 
thrive  on  any  food  except  such  as  has  grown  in  water; 


Adhesive  Eggs.  221 

though  adult  bass  have  been  kept  on  beef  and  beef 
livers.  Bass  fry  take  kindly  to  a  fish  diet,  and  thrive 
and  grow  on  it  with  little  labor  and  time. 

It  is  doubtful  if  the  practice  of  distributing  very 
young  bass  from  nests — alevins — will  prove  success- 
ful. They  are  exceedingly  tender  and  peculiarly  sus- 
ceptible to  changes  of  temperature. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

THE  CRAPPIES. 

Like  the  black  basses,  there  are  two  species  of  this 
genus,  and  they  are  difficult  for  the  novice  to  distin- 
guish. They  are  good  fishes  for  warm  ponds  and 
streams.  In  an  article  on  "The  Two  Crappies,"  in 
"Forest  and  Stream"  of  June  25,  1898,  I  took  the 
stand  that,  as  they  are  as  nearly  alike  as  the  black 
basses  are,  they  should  be  so  classed.  Heretofore  but 
one  species  had  been  called  crappie,  but  as  each  had 
a  string  of  local  names,  many  of  them  absurd,  I  ven- 
tured to  hope  that  in  time  my  simplified  nomencla- 
ture will  be  accepted. 


SMALL  MOUTH  CRAPPIE   (Pomoxys  sparoides) . 

This  pretty  fish  ranges  from  the  takes  and  ponds  of 
the  Great  Lake  region,  western  New  York,  New  Jer- 
sey, the  streams  of  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  east  of 


222     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

the  mountains,  the  Mississippi  valley,  especially  north- 
ward, it  being  the  most  northerly  fish  of  the  two.  It 
prefers  clear,  quiet  waters  where  the  bottom  is  cov- 
ered with  grass,  and  it  shuns  muddy  waters.  The 
species  cannot  be  separated  by  color.  Both  are  "un- 
dershot,'' as  they  speak  of  the  protruding  lower  jaw 
of  the  bulldog  and  pug,  but  the  small  mouth  is  the 
least  so.  (See  cuts.)  It  has  seven  or  £ight  spines  in 
its  dorsal  fin,  while  the  other  has  but  six. 


BIG  MOUTH  CRAPPIE  (Pomoxys  annularis) . 

This  is  the  more  southern  species.  To  one  accus- 
tomed to  both,  the  elongated  thickened  lower  jaw 
would  proclaim  the  big  mouth  at  once  without  count- 
ing dorsal  spines.  These  fishes  are  more  alike  than 
the  black  basses,  yet  they  are  as  distinct  in  structure 
and  habits.  The  big  mouth  loves  muddy  bottoms,  but 
is  often  found  with  its  brother.  Note  the  general 
shape  of  the  fishes  and  the  smoother  outline  of  the 
small  mouth. 

Both  these  fish  are  more  compressed  than  the  black 
basses,  quite  as  much  so  as  the  sunfish.  They  are 
good  pan-fish,  growing  to  a  foot  in  length  and  of  some 
two  pounds  weight. 

CULTURE. 

What  has  been  said  in  this  regard  of  the  black  bass 
may  be  said  for  the  crappies.  They  have  always  been 
favorites  of  mine  and  are  worth  pond  room  with  the 
black  bass. 


224     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Heater. 


NAMES. 

When  you  know  that  such  names  as  goggle-eye, 
goggle-eyed  perch — used  also  for  the  rock  bass — 
grass  bass,  strawberry  bass,  bitter  head,  lamplighter, 
bank-lick  bass,  calico  bass  and  sac-a-lai,  are  applied  to 
these  fishes  indiscriminately,  as  well  as  crappie,  you 
will  agree  that  it  is  time  for  some  one  to  take  hold 
and  straighten  out  the  tangle,  and  this  I  have  under- 
taken in  the  hope  that  in  time  the  names  I  have  sug- 
gested will  stick. 


VALUE  OF  THE  CRAPPIES. 

The  State  of  New  York  has  distributed  a  few 
small  m.outh  crappies  under  the  absurd  name  of 
"strawberry  bass,"  but  they  should  be  in  every  pond 
where  there  are  no  trout,  but  where  perch  and  sunfish 
abound.  They  have  been  neglected  because  we  have 
a  wealth  of  such  fishes  and  no  writer  has  presented 
the  claims  of  these  to  the  angler  and  fishculturist,  if  we 
except  the  late  Prof.  Kirtland,  of  Ohio,  who  said  of 
the  small  mouth  crappie,  using  the  local  name : 

"The  'grass  bass'  has  not  hitherto  been  deemed 
worthy  of  consideration  by  fishculturists ;  yet,  from  a 
long  and  intimate  acquaintance  with  its  merits,  I  hesi- 
tate not  to  pronounce  it  the  fish  for  the  million.  [Ital- 
ics are  Dr.  Kirtland's.]  It  is  a  native  of  our  Western 
rivers  and  lakes,  where  it  usually  resorts  to  deep  and 
sluggish  waters;  yet  in  several  instances,  where  it  has 
found  its  way  into  cold  and  rapid  streams,  and  even 
small-sized  brooks,  by  means  of  the  constructing  of 


226     Modern  Pishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

canals  or  by  the  hand,  of  man,  it  has  adapted  itself  to 
the  change,  and  in  two  or  three  years  stocked  to  over- 
flowing these  new  localities.  As  a  pan  fish,  for  the 
table,  it  is  surpassed  by  few  other  fresh-water  species. 
For  endurance  and  rapidity  of  increase  it  is  unequaled. 
.  .  .  The  grass  bass  is  perfectly  adapted  to  stock- 
ing ponds.  It  will  thrive  without  care  in  very  small 
ponds  of  sufficient  depth.  ...  It  will  in  nowise 
interfere  with  the  cultivation  of  any  number  of 
species,  large  or  -small,  in  the  same  waters.  It  will 
live  harmoniously  with  all  others,  and  while  its  struc- 
ture and  disposition  restrain  it  from  attacking  any 
other  but  very  small  fry,  its  formidable  armature  of 
spinous  rays  in  the  dorsal  and  abdominal  fins  will 
guard  it  against  attacks  of  even  the  voracious  pike." 

As  the  food  of  the  crappies  is  the  same  as  that  of 
the  sunfishes  and  all  other  fresh-water  fishes  with 
compressed  sides,  i.  e.  small  fish,  crustaceans,  insects 
and  their  larvae,  we  must  consider  that  their  destruc- 
tiveness  is  that  of  their  class.  I  do  not  know  of  a 
fish,  in  America  or  on  any  other  continent,  which 
takes  no  animal  food.  When  the  carp  was  introduced 
into  America  it  was  heralded  as  "a  sheep  among 
fishes/'  which  grew  to  great  weight  on  vegetation 
alone.  It  is  true  that  the  carp  eats  much  vegetation 
and  is  fond  of  that  green  conferva  which  ignorant 
people  call  "frog  spittle,"  or  "frog  spawn,"  with  which 
the  frog  has  as  much  to  do  as  the  editor  of  "Forest 
and  Stream  has/'  but  the  carp  also  loves  worms,  insect 
larvae,  and  will  take  a  small  fish  if  the  fish  can't 
escape. 

There  may  be  fishes  which  are  strict  vegetarians,  if 
so  I  don't  know  them.  The  brook  suckers  love  trout 
eggs  and  work  the  mud  for  insect  larvae;  the  stur- 


Adhesive  Eggs.  227 

geons  mouth  over  mud  for  the  snails  and  other  animal 
life  which  they  get,  and  we  must  only  consider  the 
question  of  how  much  and  what  kind  of  animal  life  a 
fish  consumes  in  order  to  plant  it  in  our  lakes  and 
streams. 

Speaking  as  a  fishculturist,  I  would,  if  I  could,  ex- 
terminate every  pike,  pickerel  and  mascalonge  in  the 
waters  of  the  earth,  for  the  reason  that  their  diet  is  ex- 
clusively fish,  and  they  consume  a  hundred  times  their 
weight  in  other  fishes  and  then  are  not  as  good  for  the 
table  as  some  that  they  have  eaten. 

As  an  angler,  I  take  no  note  of  what  it  costs  in  good 
food  fish  to  raise  a  pike  to  ten  pounds  weight,  if  the 
pike  will  only  condescend  to  take  my  hook.  This  is  a 
logical  appeal  from  Philip  sober  to  Philip  drunk.  As 
a  fishculturist,  the  ratio  of  food  consumed  to  value  of 
fish  for  market  is  a  vital  one,  as  much  so  as  the  grow- 
ing of  horses,  cattle,  pigs  and  poultry  is  to  the  farmer ; 
but  when  my  fly  is  cast,  or  a  baited  hook  is  spinning 
astern,  there  is  an  alter  ego,  another  self,  watching  for 
results,  and  the  latter  fellow  never  stops  to  consider 
whether  his  catch  is  worth  all  the  food  it  has  devoured 
tc  enable  it  to  pull  down  the  scales  to  a  creditable  point, 
or  whether  the  balance  is  on  the  other  side.  As  a  fish- 
culturist, I  would  like  to  exterminate  the  whole  pike 
family — pike,  pickerel  and  mascalonge;  but  as  an 
angler,  thinking  only  of  personal  sport,  the  point  of 
view  differs. 

HABITS. 

Although  not  a  climbing  fish,  like  that  peculiar 
perch  of  India  which  ascends  trees,  yet 'the  crappies 
are  often  found  in  tree  tops,  when  the  trees  have  fallen 


228     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

into  the  water.  Here  they  find  protection  and  food; 
the  limbs  are  the  abode  of  snails,  crustaceans  and 
worms  of  various  kinds  as  well  as  of  small  fishes,  for 
the  crappies  are  omnivorous  in  their  tastes.  The  pref- 
erence of  the  small  mouth  for  clear  and  colder  waters 
has  been  alluded  to,  but  as  many  lakes  have  both  grassy 
and  muddy  spots,  they  afford  homes  for  both  species. 
I  have  taken  the  small  mouth  crappie  in  springholes 
while  standing  on  the  ice,  but  they  were  dipped  up 
with  a  net,  and  I  don't  know  if  they  would  take  a  hook 
in  winter.  This  was  in  Grant  County,  Wisconsin,  in 
1857,  and  we  wanted  fish  for  the  table.  This  is  told 
in  detail  in  "Men  I  Have  Fished  With,"  page  309. 
There  were  black  bass  there  at  the  time,  and  they 
sometimes  lie  dormant  in  winter,  while  the  pike  and 
the  perch  feed  the  year  round.  I  have  fished  through 
the  ice  with  small  minnows  for  bait,  and  where  crap- 
pies  were  plenty,  but  never  took  one.  This,  however, 
does  not  prove  that  they  do  not  feed  in  winter. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 
WHITE  PERCH  (Morone  Americana). 

This  is  a  good  little  fish  often  seen  in  New  York 
markets.  It  is  not  white,  but  is  a  light  olive  on  the 
back  and  a  little  lighter  on  the  sides.  It  is  found  in 
brackish  waters  on  our  eastern  coast  from  Nova  Sco- 
tia to  South  Carolina.  It  ascends  rivers  and  spawns 
in  fresh  water.  It  is  often  land-locked  in  fresh-water 


230     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

ponds  and  breeds  there.     It  rises  to  the  fly  quite  well 
and  grows  to  the  length  of  ten  inches. 

It  spawns  shortly  after  the  ice  leaves  the  ponds  and 
attaches  its  eggs  to  floating  sticks,  weeds,  etc.  They 
spawn  in  early  morning  at  the  surface  and  make  quite 
a  splashing.  I  have  obtained  the  weeds  bearing  the 
eggs  and  hatched  them  in  McDonald  hatching  jars. 
The  eggs  are  very  small. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

THE  PIKE-PERCHES. 

Here  are  two  more  fishes  plagued  with  a  multiplicity 
of  common  names.  I  follow  the  late  Dr.  George 
Brown  Goode  in  choosing  the  above  title,  and  he  was 
one  of  our  best  authorities.  The  old  name  of  Luci- 
operca  given  by  Linnaeus  means  Lucius  a  pike,  and 
perca  a  perch.  It  was  a  perch  with  the  habits  of  the 
pike.  There  are  two  species;  the  largest  and  most  im- 
portant one  resembles  the  only  European  species.  This 
is  commonly  known  as  "wall-eyed  pike,"  from  its  large 
glassy  eye. 


THE  WALL-EYED  PIKE  (Stizostedion  vitreum) . 

This  fish  ranges  from  the  Great  Lakes  through  the 
sm<Ml  lakes  of  western  New  York,  north  through  Brit- 
ish America  and  south  in  the  Susquehanna,  Ohio  and 


Adhesive  Eggs.  231 

rivers  in  western  Virginia,  North  Carolina  and  Geor- 
gia. "In  the  upper  lakes,  where  the  true  pike  Esox 
Indus  is  known  as  the  pickerel,  the  S.  vitreum  is  called 
the  'pike,'  with  such  local  variations  as  'blue  pike/ 
'yellow  pike/  'green  pike'  and  'grass  pike.'  In  Ohio, 
Tennessee  and  western  North  Carolina  -it  robs  Esox  of 
another  of  its  names  and  is  called  a  'jack.'  In  Lake 
Erie,  however,  it  is  generally  known  as  'pickerel.'  The 
name  'salmon'  is  quite  generally  applied  in  rivers 
where  no  member  of  the  Salmonida  is  found.  This 
is  notably  the  fact  in  the  tributaries  of  the  Mississippi, 
Ohio  and  Susquehanna.  'Okow/  sometimes  heard  in 


THE  WALL-EYED   PIKE    (Stizostedion    Vitreum}. 

the  lake  region,  is  evidently  a  corruption  of  'okun' 
and  'okunj/  Polish  and  Russian  names  for  the  com- 
mon perch.  The  French  Canadians  on  the  lakes  call  it 
'doree/  and  'dory'  is  a  name  which  has  found  its  way 
into  books.  .  .  .  The  name  'wall-eyed  pike'  is 
coming  into  favor  and  has  already  replaced  some  mis- 
nomers long  prevalent.  If  it  must  be  used,  'wall-eye' 
is  of  course  to  be  preferred  to  the  misleading  'wall- 
eyed pike.'  To  me  it  seems  a  most  repulsive  and  un- 
desirable name,  but  others  find  it  appropriate." — 
GOODE,  "American  Fishes." 

The  wall-eye  grows  to  a  weight  of  thirty  pounds  or 


Modern  FishcuUure  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Waitr. 


more,  and  is  distinguished  from  the  other  species  by 
its  larger  eye,  a  black  blotch  on  the  last  part  of  its  first 
dorsal  fin.  In  the  illustrations  of  the  "Fisheries  In- 
dustries" from  which  my  cuts  have  been  taken,  the 
wall-eye  is  called  by  the  name  of  the  other  fish  ;  some- 
body blundered.  Goode  has  them  correct. 

THE  SAUCER  (S.  canadcuse)  . 

This  is  a  smaller  fish  and  is,  not  classed  as  a  "hard 
fish"  on  the  Great  Lakes,  but  is  placed  among  the  in- 
ferior "soft  fish.'7  It  has  a  black  spot  at  the  base  of 
the  pectoral  fins,  smaller  eye,  and  rows  of  spots  on  its 


THE  SAUCER  OR  SAND  PIKE  (Stizostedion  Canadense). 

first  dorsal.  It  is  a  more  northern  species,  ranging 
from  the  Ohio  northward.  It  is  also  called  "sand 
pike,"  which  in  the  plates  of  the  "Fisheries  Industries" 
is  misprinted  "land  pike." 


HATCHING  WALL-EYED  PIKE  EGGS. 
By  James  Nevin,  Supt.  Wisconsin  Fish  Commission. 

To  the  best  of  my  knowledge,  the  first  pike  eggs 
hatched  on  the  American  continent  were  collected  and 


Adhesive  Eggs.  233 

hatched  by  me  at  the  Sandwich,  Ontario,  fish  hatchery, 
during  the  spring  of  1877.  On  the  first  day  of  April 
of  that  year  I  went  to  West  Bay  City,  at  the  mouth  of 
Saginaw  Bay,  which  was  the  fishermen's  headquar- 
ters, and  where,  I  was  informed,  a  large  number  of 
wall-eyed  pike  were  caught.  On  the  second  day  of 
April  I  went  out  on  a  fishing  smack,  and  from  four 
pound  nets  there  were  lifted  five  tons  of  as  fine  fish  as 
man  ever  looked  on.  I  secured  about  ten  quarts  of 
eggs,  which,  I  believe,  were  the  first  wall-eyed  pike 
eggs  taken  in  American  waters.  I  continued  to  work 
here,  going  out  on  the  boat  from  day  to  day,  until  I 
had  seven  boxes  of  eggs,  which  I  shipped  to  Detroit. 
The  Sandwich  hatchery  is  located  across  the  river 
from  Detroit.  I  had  left  a  Frenchman  named  Daniel 
Semande  in  charge  of  the  hatchery.  Semande  was  a 
man  who  could  turn  his  hand  to  any  kind  of  work,  and 
he  was  possessed  of  the  idea  that  he  could  hatch  fish 
as  well,  and  possibly  better,  than  any  other  man  in  the 
country.  He  had  been  a  fisherman  all  his  life.  Se- 
mande was  desirous  of  trying  his  hand  at  hatching 
these  eggs,  and  said  if  I  would  send  the  eggs  to  him 
he  would  take  as  good  care  of  them  as  if  I  were  there 
to  look  after  them.  The  eggs  were  placed  in  hatch- 
ing cans.  Semande  wrote  me  every  day,  assuring  me 
that  the  eggs  were  "doing  fine."  Later,  however,  I 
received  a  telegram  from  Mrs.  Nevin,  advising  me  to 
come  home,  as  there  was  not  a  live  egg  in  the  batch. 
I  took  the  first  train  home,  and  on  arrival  found  that 
the  eggs  were  all  dead.  I  had  these  thrown  out,  and 
returned  to  West  Bay  City  to  get  another  batch.  I 
succeeded  in  obtaining  some  ten  millions  eggs,  which 
I  took  home  with  me.  From  this  lot  we  hatched  one 
million  frv.  However,  I  did  not  feel  satisfied  with  the 


234     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

result,  and  was  of  the  opinion  I  could  do  better  if  I 
could  get  the  eggs  for  another  trial. 

On  the  1 6th  day  of  May  of  the  same  year  I  left  for 
St.  Clair  River,  where  pike  spawn  much  later  than 
on  any  other  grounds  that  I  know  of.  Usually  they 
begin  to  spawn  as  soon  as  the  ice  goes  out  of  the 
river,  lake  or  bay,  as  the  case  may  be;  but  on  the  St. 
Clair  River  they  do  not  begin  to  spawn  until  the  I5th 
of  May.  I  succeeded  in  collecting  20,000,000  eggs 
on  this  river,  which  I  took  with  me  to  the  hatchery. 
Of  this  batch  we  hatched  3,500,000  fry,  as  is  shown 
by  my  report  for  that  year,  which  was  a  small  per- 
centage of  the  number  of  eggs  taken. 

In  the  spring  of  1878  I  again  went  to  Saginaw  Bay 
to  collect  pike  eggs.  While  there  I  met  Mr.  Orin  M. 
Chase,  of  the  Michigan  Fish  Commission,  to  whom  I 
related  my  experience  and  partial  failure  with  pike 
eggs  the  previous  year.  After  Mr.  Chase  had  been 
there  a  few  days  he  showed  me  the  eggs  he  had  taken, 
and  said :  "Jim,  I  will  hatch  90  per  cent,  of  these 
eggs."  I  told  him  I  would  call  around  and  see  his 
eggs  before  they  began  to  hatch.  Mr.  Chase  left  for 
the  Detroit  hatchey  with  his  eggs;  at  the  same  time 
I  started  for  the  Sandwich  hatchery  with  those  I  had 
taken.  Just  before  the  fish  began  to  hatch,  I  visited 
the  Detroit  hatchery  to  compare  notes  with  Mr.  Chase. 
Mr.  Chase  told  me,  "Tfre  jig  is  up ;  I  will  not  hatch 
five  per  cent,  of  the  eggs  I  took."  T  secured  that  sea- 
son from  Saginaw  Bay  and  St.  Clair  River  50,000,- 
ooo  eggs,  and  hatched  and  planted  6,000,000  fry  from 
those  eggs. 

The  difficulty  in  this  work  was  the  adhesiveness  of 
the  eggs.  We  could  not  keep  them  from  sticking  to- 
gether. For  days  after  they  were  put  in  jars  they 


Adhesive  Eggs.  235 

would  bunch  up,  and  we  had  to  take  them  out  two  and 
three  times  per  day,  and  perhaps  oftener,  and  run 
them  through  a  wire  screen  with  a  mesh  just  large 
enough  to  permit  the  eggs  to  pass  through  one  at  a 
time.  We  killed  a  large  part  of  the  eggs  in  handling 
them  and  working  them  through  the  screens. 

After  I  came  to  Wisconsin,  for  three  years  we  col- 
lected our  pike  eggs  at  the  mouth  of  the  Wolf  River. 
We  took  from  150,000,000  to  200,000,000  eggs  each 
year ;  but  were  able  to  hatch  not  more  than  5  per  cent, 
of  this  vast  number.  The  difficulty  here  was  that  the 
milt  came  from  the  male  fish  in  clots  and  would  not 
dissolve  in  the  pan.  After  trying  different  methods 
to  overcome  the  difficulty,  but  without  success,  we  de- 
cided not  to  collect  any  more  eggs  at  that  point.  Three 
years  ago  I  was  ordered  to  plant  some  full-grown  pike 
in  the  lakes  at  Waupaca.  For  convenience  in  trans- 
portation, Gill's  Landing,  a  railroad  station  some 
twenty  miles  up  the  river  from  where  we  had  taken 
eggs>  was  selected  as  the  place  to  get  the  fish.  To 
our  great  surprise,  we  found  the  male  fish  here  in 
prime  condition.  We  took  a  quantity  of  eggs  and 
hatched  fully  60  per  cent,  of  them.  The  only  hypothe- 
sis on  which  I  can  account  for  our  failure  to  impreg- 
nate the  eggs  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  is  that  the  male 
fish  were  not  ripe  when  they  entered  the  river. 

For  several  years  we  have  collected  eggs  from  Pike 
Lake,  in  Price  County.  This  lake  is  situated  in  the 
pine  forests,  twenty-four  miles  from  a  railroad.  A 
hatch  of  50  per  cent,  is  a  large  average;  but  we  have 
impregnated  fully  80  per  cent,  of  the  eggs  taken  from 
this  lake.  The  fish  are  of  the  large  yellow  variety ;  the 
male  will  produce  more  milt  than  a  dozen  males  from 
any  other  waters  in  which  I  have  collected  eggs. 


236     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

The  eggs  from  different  localities  vary  in  size. 
Those  from  fish  taken  from  Pike  Lake  will  average 
80,000  to  the  quart,  while  those  from  fish  taken  from 
the  Wolf  River,  Green  Bay,  Saginaw  Bay  or  St.  Clair 
River  will  average  120,000  to  the  quart. 

The  course  which  we  pursue  in  collecting,  fertiliz- 
ing and  hatching  the  eggs  is  as  follows :  We  get  on 
the  grounds  early  and  have  all  preparations  made  for 
tne  fish  when  they  come.  The  males  come  a  few  days 
ahead  of  the  females  ;«but  we  have  our  nets  set  and  cor- 
ral a  large  number  of  males,  which  we  keep  until  the 
run  of  female  fish  comes  on.  They  are  caught  in 
pound  or  fyke  nets.  The  nets  are  lifted  morning  and 
evening,  and  the  fish  taken  in  live  boxes  and  placed  in 
crates,  which  we  have  prepared  for  the  purpose.  Thus, 
when  we  begin  to  take  spawn,  the  fish  are  convenient 
to  the  spawn  taker.  A  man  with  a  net  dips  the  fish 
into  a  tub.  The  spawn  taker  takes  a  ripe  female  from 
the  tub  and  spawns  it  into  a  pan  containing  less  than 
half  a  teacup  of  water.  As  soon  as  the  female  is 
spawned  the  male  fish  is  used.  Only  one  female  fish 
is  spawned  into  a  pan — a  fresh  pan  being  provided 
after  each.  One  man  attends  to  the  pans.  After  each 
female  has  been  stripped  and  enough  milt  put  on  the 
eggs,  he  shakes  the  pan  for  a  moment  to  mix  the  milt 
and  eggs,  and  then  sets  it  aside  for  some  twenty  min- 
utes until  the  eggs  become  loose.  When  we  get  eight 
or  ten  pans,  or  enough  for  a  tub-full,  they  are  washed 
and  separated  in  a  tub  in  the  following  manner:  We 
procure  a  quantity  of  clay  or  muck,  as  is  most  con- 
venient, which  we  usually  sift  to  remove  lumps  and 
gravel,  and  mix  it  in  a  tub  of  water.  The  eggs  are 
then  placed  in  a  tub,  and  a  man  or  boy  with  a  dipper 
keeps  them  in  constant  motion  in  the  tub,  pouring  off 


Adhesive  Eggs.  237 

part  of  the  water  at  intervals  of  five  or  ten  minutes 
and  adding  fresh  water.  This  is  continued  for  an 
hour,  or  until  the  eggs  become  hard  and  will  not  stick. 
They  are  then  placed  in  boxes,  similar  to  shad  boxes, 
and  set  in  the  current  of  the  river,  where  they  are 
kept  from  one  to  six  days,  or  until  convenient  to  ship 
them  to  the  hatchery.  In  shipping  the  eggs,  they  are 
placed  on  wire  trays  and  put  in  boxes,  which  are  large 
enough  to  permit  two  inches  of  crushed  ice  to  be 
packed  on  every  side.  We  also  put  crushed  ice  on 
the  top  tray.  Our  trays  are  made  of  galvanized  wire- 
cloth.  Most  hatcheries  use  flannel  cloth  on  the  trays. 
We  have  discarded  the  flannel-covered  trays,  as  we  be- 
lieve the  wire-cloth  is  preferable  for  the  reason  that 
they  are  more  durable,  the  water  drips  through  the 
wire  more  readily  than  flannel,  and  a  better  circula- 
tion is  provided.  When  the  eggs  are  received  at  the 
hatchery  they  are  taken  from  the  shipping  boxes  and 
run  through  a  wire  screen  with  a  mesh  just  large 
enough  for  a  single  egg  to  pass  through  at  a  time. 
This  screening  removes  all  scales  or  dirt  from  the 
eggs.  They  are  then  put  in  hatching  jars,  and  they 
work  as  freely  as  the  eggs  of  the  whitefish. 

We  have  used  muck  and  clay  in  our  eggs  to  prevent 
adhesion  since  the  spring  of  1884.  This  method  of 
preventing  adhesion  of  the  eggs  was  discovered  by  us 
accidentally.  We  were  having  the  usual  trouble  with 
our  pike  eggs,  and  they  were  badly  bunched  up  in  the 
jars.  One  day  it  became  necessary  for  the  city  to  re- 
pair the  water  main  which  supplied  our  hatchery.  As 
a  result  we  had  a  flow  of  roily  water  for  several  hours. 
After  the  roily  water  had  cleared  off  it  was  evident 
that  our  eggs  were  working  much  better.  This  set  us 
to  experimenting.  We  procured  some  earth,  took  our 


238     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

eggs  out  of  the  jars  and  put  them  in  tubs  filled  with 
muddy  water.  We  stirred  them  in  the  tubs  for  sev- 
eral minutes  and  returned  them  to  the  jars.  To  our 
great  delight,  the  experiment  was  completely  success- 
ful ;  and  from  that  day  to  this  we  have  had  no  trouble 
in  preventing  these  eggs  from  sticking  or  bunching. 

The  wall-eyed  pike  is  a  fish  which  will  not  stand 
much  confinement.  If  they  are  kept  in  the  crates  more 
than  three  days  before  the  time  to  spawn,  the  eggs  will 
begin  to  bunch  in  the  fish  and  will  not  loosen  up;  or 
the  tail  of  the  fish  will  become  fungused  and  the  fish 
will  soon  die.  When  we  see  a  white  spot  back  of  the 
second  dorsal  fin  we  at  once  liberate  the  fish. 

I  have  been  engaged  in  the  work  of  fishculture  for 
twenty-seven  years,  but  until  last  spring  it  remained 
for  me  to  see  these  fish  in  the  act  of  spawning  natur- 
ally. It  was  during  high  water ;  the  stream  had  over- 
flowed its  banks  and  they  were  scattered  over  the 
marshy  land  adjoining.  I  stood  on  a  railroad  trestle- 
work  for  an  hour  and  watched  hundreds  of  them  in 
the  act  of  spawning.  The  female  would  roll  over  and 
over  constantly  during  the  time  she  threw  her  eggs, 
while  from  two  to  five  small  male  fish  gathered  around 
her  and  gave  off  milt  as  the  eggs  came  from  the  fe- 
male. I  have  often  heard  men  say  that  the  time  to  go 
spearing  with  a  jack-light  was  when  the  fish  were 
rolling  or  bunching,  as  they  could  then  get  two  or 
three  fish  at  a  throw.  I  can  now  fully  understand  the 
significance  of  the  statement. 

I  use  the  Chase  hatching  jar  for  hatching  these 
fish.  The  term  of  incubation  varies  with  the  tem- 
perature of  the  water  used  in  the  jars.  In  water  of 
60°  the  eggs  will  hatch  in  about  fifteen  days ;  in  water 
9f  a  temperature  of  48°  it  requires  thirty-five  days  to 


Adhesive  Eggs.  239 

hatch.  It  takes  but  a  few  days  to  absorb  the  sac ;  this 
also  depends  to  a  great  extent  on  the  temperature  of 
the  water.  After  the  sac  is  absorbed  the  fry  should 
be  liberated  as  soon  as  possible,  or  a  considerable  loss 
will  be  incurred  by  the  little  fellows  devouring  one 
another. 


In  the  above  paper  Mr.  Nevin  has  covered  the 
ground  very  well,  and  it  only  remains  to  say  that  Prof. 
Reighard,  of  Michigan,  in  experimenting  with  these 
eggs,  obtained  excellent  results  in  overcoming  the  ad- 
hesiveness by  the  use  of  cornstarch. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

CATFISH. 

These  fish,  called  "bullheads"  in  New  York  and 
"bullpouts"  and  "hornpouts"  in  New  England,  are 
very  good  table  fish  for  many  people.  They  -feed  on 
the  bottom  on  worms,  fish  eggs,  or  any  animal  food. 
As  they  feed  mainly  at  night,  they  may  forage  on  the 
nests  of  the  black  bass;  but  as  this  is  the  first  time 
that  such  a  thing  has  been  hinted,  I  hasten  to  say  that 
it  is  merely  a  surmise.  This  family  of  fishes  protect 
their  young1. 


240     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

Of  catfishes  we  have  two  salt-water  species  and 
sixteen  in  fresh  water,  from  the  great  Amieurus  nigri- 
cans,  which  grows  to  100  pounds  weight,  down  to 
small  ones  which  do  not  get  to  be  over  four  inches  in 
length.  The  common  "bullhead"  of  New  York,  A. 
nebulosus,  grows  to  a  length  of  eighteen  inches  and 
ranges  from  New  England  to  Wisconsin,  Virginia  and 
Texas.  The  best  of  all  the  species  for  table  is  the 
"channel  cat,"  or  "white  cat,"  Ictalurus  punctatus, 
which  grows  to  three  feet,,  and  is  thus  described  by 
Jordan:  "Oliveaceus,  rarely  blackish,  the  sides  sil- 
very, almost  always  with  small  round  dark  olive  spots ; 
eye  large,  not  wholly  in  front  of  middle  of  head  ;  mouth 
small;  barbels  long;  spines  strong,  serrate;  Montana 
to  Vermont,  "Georgia  and  Mexico;  very  abundant  in 
flowing  streams.  A  handsome  fish;  the  best  in  the 
family  as  food." 

The  A.  albidus  of  the  Potomac  is  also  called  "white 
cat"  and  "channel  cat."  It  has  a  stout  body  and  broad 
head  and  is  not  spotted.  The  common  names  should 
not  confound  the  species.  They  guard  their  nests. 

Fin  rays  soft  with  a  stout  pungent  spine  in  the  dor- 
sal and  pectorals.  In  the  latter  fins  these  spines  can 
be  set  at  right  angles  to  the  body  and  locked  so  that 
they  may  be  broken  before  they  can  be  pressed  down. 
There  is  a  sort  of  trigger-bone  behind  these  pectoral 
spines  which,  if  touched,  allows  them  to  be  laid  back. 
In  former  years,  when  inspecting  the  commercial  fish- 
eries on  the  Hudson,  I  discovered  this  and  the  knowl- 
edge was  of  value  in  getting  a  "bullhead"  from  a  gill 
net  where  it  was  entangled, 


Adhesive  Eggs.  241 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

CARP  (Cyprinus  carpio). 

The  indiscriminate  introduction  of  this  fish  in  Amer- 
ica was  a  mistake.  It  was  boomed  as  a  great  producer 
of  good  food  where  no  good  food  grew.  It  was  a 
vegetarian,  "a  sheep  among  fishes,"  quick  growing 
and  prolific.  All  of  this  is  true.  The  fact  is  that  in 
Germany  fish  are  a  luxury  and  poor  people  do  not  eat 
fresh  fish.  Before  the  day  of  railroads  fish  that 
reached  Berlin  came  by  stage  coach,  and  to-day  the 
people  are  prejudiced  against  all  salt-water  fish,  which 
they  say  has  "a  sea  taste."  This  is  hereditary  preju- 
dice and  prevents  good  sea  fish  from  going  to  Berlin  in 
large  quantities.  They  want  their  fish  alive,  and  the 
fishmongers  have  most  of  their  fish  in  aquaria.  Fancy 
this  for  the  thousands  of  tons  that  come  to  New  York 
daily!  In  the  streets  of  Hamburg  can  be  seen  tubs 
with  pike  "hecht"  (esox),  perch  (barsch)  and  carp,  all 
kept  alive  by  women  aerating  the  water. 

We  must  remember  this  in  order  to  understand  why 
the  Germans  consider  the  carp  a  good  fish ;  they  know 
no  better.  They  have  "improved"  breeds  of  them  as 
they  have  of  cattle,  from  the  fully  scaled  fish  to  those 
partly  naked  but  with  big  scales  accidentally  placed, 
mirrorkarpfen,  to  those  without  a  scale,  lederkarpfen. 

The  late  Herr  von  Behr,  President  of  the  German 
Fishery  Association,  induced  Prof.  Baird  to  import 
the  carp  and  eulogized  it.  Prof.  Baird  did  so,  and 
to-day  no  fish  is  so  heartily  cursed  by  Americans  as 


242     Moderq  Pishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  WaieY. 

the  carp.  It  roots  up  the  water  plants,  muddies  the 
ponds  and  renders  them  unfit  for  other  fish,  and  the 
carp  are  worthless  for  the  table.  They  are  in  the  class 
of  the  soft  buffalo  fish  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the 
suckers. 

Great  carp  of  fifteen  to  twenty  pounds  come  to  Ful- 
ton Market,  New  York,  and  some  Germans,  with  old 
country  memories,  buy  them;  a  lot  are  sold  by  push 
cart  men  among  the  tenements  on  the  East  Side,  but 
there  is  little  sale  for  them  outside  of  this.  I  have  eaten 
the  carp  in  Germany,  cooked  in  beer  and  served  with 
a  brown  beer  sauce,  but  never  when  I  could  help  it. 

The  carp  spawn  in  early  summer,  the  eggs  adhering 
to  water  plants.  The  fish  grow  fast,  under  favorable 
circumstances  reaching  a  weight  of  ten  pounds  in  three 
years.  The  Government  carp  ponds  at  Washington, 
D.  C,  overflowed  some  years  ago  and  let  a  lot  of  these 
fish  into  the  Potomac,  and  the  shad  fishers  and  anglers 
are  cursing  them  to-day  for  a  nuisance  that  can  never 
be  abated,  like  our  European  sparrow. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  United  States  Fish 
Commission  published  "A  Manual  of  Fish  Culture"  in 
1897  and  did  not  mention  the  carp. 


CASTRATING   CARP. 

Here  is  a  curious  bit  of  fish  lore  translated  from  the 
"Deustche  Fischerei  Zeitung,  Stettin,  of  May  16,  1882, 
under  the  above  heading:  "Concerning  the  question 
asked  by  Count  Gessler  about  the  castration  of  carp,  I 
will  quote  from  an  old  German  fish  book  entitled 
"Pond  and  Fishery  Husbandry,"  by  Johann  Andreas 
Guenther,  18-10,  pages  142-144.  To  bring  the*carp  to 


Adhesive  Eggs.  243 

a  high  degree  of  fatness,  and  also  to  make  their  flesh  of 
finer  flavor,  the  Englishman,  Tull,  has  discovered  and 
recommended  castration.  This  operation  can  be  per- 
formed on  the  male  as  well  as  on  the  female.  The  best 
time  for  the  operation  is  after  they  have  spawned,  while 
they  are  soft  and  feeble,  for  then  the  painful  effects  afe 
not  so  lasting.' ': 

There  was  more  of  this,  but  no  detail,  and  I  Wfoti 
Count  Max  von  dem  Borne,  a  well  known  German  fish- 
culturist,  and  here  is  his  reply: 

"Berneuchen,  March  9,  1881. 

"My  Dear  Sir:  I  have  your  letter  of  March  I,  and 
will  try  to  collect  something  relating  to  the  castration 
of  carp,  which  is  entirely  unknown  to  me.  Therefore  I 
have  written  to  Mr.  W.  Horak,  late  Director  of  the 
large  carp  ponds  of  the  Prince  Schwarzenberg,  at 
Wittingen,  and  the  author  of  the  best  book  on  carp 
breeding.  I  hope  he  will  give  us  all  ever  known  on  the 
subject." 

This  was  all  I  ever  heard  of  the  matter,  until  the  late 
Prof.  Spencer  F.  Baird  wrote  me,  under  date  of  May 
20,  1886:  "Mr.  Hessel  informs  me  that  the  Bretaigne 
carp  is  the  caponized  ordinary  carp,  requiring  of  course 
a  special  process  to  produce  this  result,  *  *  *»" 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

THE  ALEWIVES. 

These  are  near  relatives  of  the  shad,  but  having  glu- 
tinous eggs  are  widely  separated  in  this  book.    They 


244     Modern  Pishcidiure  in  Fresh  and  Salt  WateV. 

are  called  "herrin"  on  the  Hudson  River,  but  the  tru<* 
herring,  clupea  harengus,  does  not  enter  fresh  water. 
We  have  the  "branch  herring/'  c.  pseudoharengus,  and 
the  "glut  herring/'  c.  astivalis,  both  of  value.  They  are 
bony,  but  are  eaten  fresh  and  salted  in  great  numbers 
by  people  living  on  the  rivers.  They  spawn  at  night  in 
creeks  and  bayous,  among  the  flotsam,  and  make  a 
great  racket  in  doing  it.  I  have  taken  the  eggs  on 
dried  eel-grass  and  hatched  them  in  floating  boxes.  It 
was  the  milt  of  one  of  these  fishes  that  was  used  on 
shad  eggs  when  no  male  shad  were  at  hand.  They 
run  up  the  Hudson  to  Albany,  and  I  have  seen  them  by 
the  thousand  in  a  pool  below  the  dam  of  the  South  Side 
Sportsman's  Club,  on  the  south  side  of  Long  Island, 
and  intended  to  bring  them  to  the  little  smelt  stream 
at  Cold  Spring  Harbor.  They  are  not  first-class  fish, 
but  are  good  food,  and  that  is  what  poor  people  want. 
Like  the  shad,  they  get  their  living  in  salt-water,  and, 
therefore,  do  not  compete  with  the  fresh-water  species. 
As  food  for  people  who  want  a  cheap  food  this  species 
should  be  cultivated  where  there  are  facilities  for  its 
breeding.  Below  Albany,  N.  Y.,  they  come  soon  after 
the  ice  goes  out  and  at  first  retail  readily  at  30  to  50 
cents  per  dozen.  A  month  later,  when  they  are  plenty 
and  are  about  to  spawn,  or  have  spawned,  the  price 
drops  to  10  cents  per  dozen,  and  the  farmers  drive  into 
the  river  where  the  shad  fishermen  are  hauling  seines 
and  take  home  wagon  loads  for  salting,  buying  them 
for  a  few  cents  per  bushel.  At  least  that  was  the  rule 
when  I  was  hatching  shad  on  the  Hudson,  at  Castleton, 
in  1874,  and  later. 


Adhesive  Egg3.  245 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

STURGEON. 

This  valuable  food  fish  is  in  danger  of  extermination 
by  being  caught  in  the  spawning  season  for  its  partly 
ripe  eggs,  which,  owing  to  the  demand  for  them  when 
made  into  caviare,  are  worth  more  than  the  great  fish 
itself.  I  am  unfashionable  enough  to  like  sturgeon  and 
to  loathe  caviare;  if  there  was  a  stronger  word  than 
loathe  it  would  be  used  here. 

Once  the  Hudson  River  swarmed  with  this  fish,  and 
"Albany  beef"  was  the  common  name  of  its  flesh.  Now 
they  are  practically  gone  from  the  river  and  the  caviare 
hunters  have  gone  to  Lake  of  the  Woods,  north  of 
Minnesota,  for  the  lake  sturgeon,  for  there  are  two 
species. 

The  sturgeon  spawns  in  early  summer,  has  heavy, 
adhesive  eggs,  measuring  nine  to  the  inch,  which  hatch 
in  six  to  seven  days.  The  eggs  are  difficult  to  take  and 
in  some  cases  the  fish  of  both  sexes  have  had  to  be 
ripped  open,  even  when  ripe. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 
YELLOW  PERCH  (Perca  flavescens). 

This  common  pond  and  river  fish  is  so  near  the 
European  perch  that  the  fish  sharps  have  disputed  over 


246    Modern  Fishculture  in  Presh  and  Salt  Water. 

it  for  years.  Jordan  gives  its  range  in  America  as 
"Minnesota  to  Northern  Ohio  and  Quebec,  south  to 
South  Carolina,  east  of  Alleghanies,  not  in  Ohio  Valley 
or  Southwest;  abundant."  He  also  gives  its  length  as 
fifteen  inches.  It  is  too  common  to  describe.  Is  not 
found  in  Adirondack  waters.  The  black  stripes  on 
yellow  ground  have  given  it  the  names  of  ringed  perch 
and  raccoon  perch  in  some  parts.  It  is  a  fair  table  fish, 
and  if  from  muddy,  weedy  waters,  should  be  skinned ; 
in  fact,  black  bass  are  better  when  skinned. 

The  eggs  of  this  fish  are  unique.  It  is  the  first  fish 
that  I  hatched  and  I  find  the  following  among  my 
notes:  "April  20,  1868,  while  fishing  a  few  miles  below 
Albany,  took  and  impregnated  10,000  spawn  of  the  yel- 
low perch.  The  spawn  comes  in  a  long  ribbon,  or 
rather  a  cylindric  one,  double  like  a  stocking  leg,  but 
with  numerous  wrinkles;  the  eggs  are  seen  as  bright 
spots  the  size  of  a  pin  head  scattered  through  this  mu- 
cous mass.  The  spawn  was  partly  pressed  and  partly 
pulled  from  the  fish  and  put  into  the  old  wash  basin 
used  as  a  boat  bailer  with  water,  and  the  milt  from  sev- 
eral males  put  with  it.  Took  it  to  Albany  in  my  dinner 
pail,  and  remembering  that  the  aquarium  at  the  State 
Geological  Rooms  was  empty,  I  asked  permission  to 
use  it  for  hatching,  which  request  was  kindly  granted 
by  Prof.  Hall,  Curator  of  the  State  Cabinet.  Noticed 
life  the  third  day;  about  100  dead — all  dead  by  May  i, 
don't  know  why. 

"I  found  that  this  fish  hung  its  spawn  over  twigs 
under  water,  and  have  found  it  often  hung  in  the  nets. 
Have  often  seen  it  hanging  high  and  dry  at  least  a  foot 
out  of  water,  where  it  was  laid  at  a  higher  stage  of  the 
river.  My  spawn  was  hung  on  a  twig  near  where  the 
water  entered  the  tank  to  insure  a  circulation. 


248     Modern  Fishculiure  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

"May  2,  took  about  20,000  and  put  in  same  place; 
raised  the  curtain,  but  the  sun  did  not  strike  the  eggs; 


OVARY  OF  YELLOW  PERCH,  with  nearly  ripe  eggs,  the  forked 
extremity  being  the  anterior  part  of  the  roe. 

life  in  two  days.  Some  one  let  down  the  curtains  and 
pushed  down  the  strainer  on  the  waste  pipe;  about 
two-thirds  of  the  eggs  went  down  the  pipe  (it  was  in 


PART  OF  A  RECENTLY  LAID  MASS  OF  YELLOW  PERCH  EGGS. 
These  cuts  are  from  "A  Manual  of  Fish  Culture,"  ex- 
tracted from  U.  S.  Fish  Commission  Report  for  1897. 

three  bunches),  half  the  remainder  dead,  probably  from 
handling,  as  I  was  informed  that  somebody  lifted  them 
out.  The  embryos  are  in  constant  motion  in  the  egg — 


Adhesive  Eggs.  249 

a  regular  beating  movement  like  clockwork.  In  ten 
days  from  impregnation  1,000  hatched  frofh  the  3,000 
left,  notwithstanding  the  eggs  were  often  disturbed  by 
visitors.  Six  days  after  hatching,  the  sac  was  absorbed, 
and  I  fed  them  clotted  blood  every  day.  My  notes  say : 
'In  twenty  days  they  had  all  disappeared  down  the 
waste  pipe.'  r 

The  ice  is  scarcely  out  of  the  rivers  before  the  perch 
begins  to  spawn,  and  in  tide  water  millions  of  eggs  per- 
ish by  being  left  in  the  air  at  low  tide,  or  after  a  freshet. 
The  mass  of  eggs  is  often  larger  than  the  fish  which  laid 
them,  after  they  have  swollen,  being  sometimes  five  feet 
long.  The  only  provision  that  can  be  made  for  their 
spawning  is  to  put  bushes  in  the  water  if  there  are  none 
there.  The  eggs  may  then  be  gathered  and  hatched  in 
any  suitable  water  between  45°  and  50°  Fahr. 

I  have  since  hatched  yellow  perch  on  Long  Island; 
the  water  there  was  colder  than  that  in  Albany,  and  the 
hatching  required  a  few  days  more. 


SECTION  VI. 


PARASITES,  DISEASES  AND  ENEMIES. 

There  are  thorns  in  the  path  of  the  fishculturist,  who 
must  be  as  vigilant  as  the  farmer,  manufacturer  or  mer- 
chant in  order  to  preserve  the  fruits  of  his  labor.  Out- 
side of  human  poachers,  he  must  watch  for  the  three 
plagues  which  are  treated  of  in  this  section.  By  day 
and  by  night  there  are  enemies  working  against  him,  as 
there  are  against  the  grower  of  fruit,  grain,  live  stock 
or  the  man  in  other  business.  Eternal  vigilance  is  the 
price  of  success  in  fishculture  as  well  as  in  all  other 
things. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

PARASITES. 

All  living  animals  have  internal  and  external  para- 
sites, unless  the  parasites  themselves  are  exceptions, 
which  may  be  a  matter  of  doubt,  for  an  old  rhyme 
says: 

"So  naturalists  observe,  a  flea 
Has  smaller  fleas  that  on  him  prey; 
And  these  have  smaller  still  to  bite  'em; 
And  so  proceed,  ad  infinitum," 

250 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  251 


EXTERNAL  PARASITES. 

A  deadly  parasite  is  the  fungus  which  is  called 
Saprolegnia  ferax  by  scientists,  although  the  micro- 
scope shows  variations  which  may  be  different  species. 
Of  this  I  am  not  qualified  to  speak.  It  appears  to  be 
nearly  the  same  on  the  fish  as  on  the  egg,  a  woolly  or 
cottony  growth.  We  often  see  it  on  dead  flies  in  water, 
and  the  fact  is  that  spores  of  this  fungus  are  every- 
where in  the  water,  only  awaiting  a  suitable  field  to 
grow  in,  just  as  spores  of  mould  in  the  air  will  find  a 
good  field  in  a  pair  of  damp  boots  in  a  dark  closet, 
while  spores  which  fall  on  dry  boots  will  not  germi- 
nate. An  abrasion  on  the  skin  of  a  fish,  a  bruise  or 
other  injury,  is  an  inviting  field  for  fungus,  but  a  clean 
cut  does  not  seem  to  be  so  favorable  for  its  growth. 

A  favorite  spot  for  this  fungus  to  germinate  is  where 
the  protecting  slime  has  been  removed  from  a  fish, 
and  this  slime  is  readily  removed  by  a  dry  hand,  hence 
in  the  chapter  on  taking  trout  eggs  I  insist  on  the 
hands  being  wet  before  the  trout  is  touched.  It  is  not 
uncommon  to  find  a  dead  fish  with  the  print  of  a 
thumb  on  one  side  of  its  back  and  of  the  fingers  on  the 
other,  where  some  kind  angler  has  returned  a  fish  to 
the  water  after  handling  it,  in  ignorance  that  he  signed 
its  death  warrant  when  he  touched  it  with  a  dry  hand. 
You  may  take  a  fresh-water  fish  of  any  kind  and  lay  it 
in  a  dry  towel,  smoothing  the  towel  gently  about  it  and 
then  return  the  fish  to  the  water,  when  it  will  swim  off 
apparently  unharmed ;  about  a  week  afterward  the  fish 
will  appear  to  have  a  bloom,  like  that  of  a  ripe  purple 
grape  or  plum  upon  it,  and  then  comes  the  "cottony 


252     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

growth/'  and  in  ten  days  the  fish  will  be  dead,  with 
great  inflamed  patches  below  the  skin  where  the  fungus 
has  rooted  into  the  flesh. 

In  the  first  stages  of  this  trouble  the  fungus  can  be 
killed  by  keeping  the  fish  in  salt  water  for  a  week  or 
two,  but  when  the  roots  penetrate  below  the  skin  and 
attack  the  muscle  there  is  no  remedy  known  at  present. 
In  the  old  New  York  Aquarium,  Broadway  and  Thirty- 
fifth  street,  New  York,  1876-79,  I  tried  salicylic  acid, 
borax,  boracic  acid  and  alum,  separately  and  combined, 
with  no  effect  on  the  mascalonge  and  other  fishes  in- 
jured in  transit.  The  last  three  things  named  are  dead- 
ly to  fish  if  not  carefully  used,  and  I  went  so  far  as  to 
bandage  the  fish  and  put  it  in  a  trough  where  it  could 
not  turn,  and  then  apply  the  remedies  behind  its  mouth 
and  gills,  saturating  the  bandage,  but  found  nothing  as 
good  as  salt  and  clean  soil.  By  "clean  soil"  I  mean 
earth  from  the  country,  and  not  city  mud.  All  trout 
streams  have  more  or  less  soil  washed  into  them  at 
times,  even  to  rendering  the  water  opaque,  but  it 
never  injures  trout,  on  the  contrary  it  does  them  good 
in  freeing  them  from  external  parasites. 

A  formidable  external  parasite  common  to  most 
fishes  is  the  lamprey  in  its  different  species.  These 
animals  are  often  miscalled  Clamper  eels"  and  ''lamprey 
eels,"  but  they  are  not  remotely  related  to  the  eel,  or 
even  in  the  class  pices,  which  contain  the  fishes,  where 
the  eel  is  entitled  to  a  place.  They  are  in  the  class 
cyclostomi,  and  are  nearer  worms  than  fish,  except  that 
they  have  a  soft  backbone.  Jordan,  "Manual  of  the 
Vertebrates,"  says  of  them:  "Skeleton  cartilaginous; 
skull  imperfect,  not  separate  from  vertebral  column ; 
no  jaws ;  no  limbs ;  no  ribs ;  no  shoulder  girdle 
nor  pelvic  elements;  gills  in  the  form  of  fixed  sacs,  six 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies,  253 

or  more  on  each  side;  nostril  single  median;  mouth 
sub-inferior,  nearly  circular,  adapted  for  sucking;  heart 
without  arterial  bulb;  alimentary  canal  straight,  simple; 
vertical  fins  with  feeble  rays.  Naked  eel-shaped  ani- 
mals found  in  all  cool  waters." 

Yet  when  I  testified  in  court  as  to  the  species  of  eels 
in  our  waters,  I  was  followed  by  a  man  who  claims  to 
be  an  authority  on  fishes,  who  mentioned  the  "lamper 
eel"  as  an  eel.  Jordan  says :  "They  attach  themselves 
to  fishes,  and  feed  by  scraping  off  the  flesh  with  their 
rasp-like  teeth."  An  exhaustive  and  well  illustrated 
paper  on  this  subject  may  be  found  in  the  Bulletin  of 
the  United  States  Fish  Commission,  Volume  XVII. , 
1897,  pages  209  to  215,  by  Prof.  H.  A.  Surface,  M.  S., 
Fellow  in  Vertebrate  Zoology,  Cornell  University, 
under  the  title  of  "The  Lampreys  of  Central  New 
York."  The  illustrations  show  the  lampreys,  and 
photos  of  pickerel,  suckers  and  catfish  with  great  holes 
in  their  sides,  where  they  had  been  eaten.  Lampreys 
have  the  habit  of  leeches. 

The  same  volume,  pages  193,  199,  contains  an  article 
entitled  "An  Economical  Consideration  of  Fish  Para- 
sites," by  Dr.  Edwin  Linton,  Ph.  D.,  Professor  of 
Biology,  Washington  and  Jefferson  College.  The 
reader  who  wishes  to  pursue  the  subject  further  is  rec- 
ommended to  get  the  volume  named. 

In  1886  Mr.  C.  Van  Beuren,  President  Balsam  Lake 
Club,  Hardenburgh,  Ulster  County,  N.  Y.,  wrote  me: 
"A  number  of  trout  have  been  caught  in  our  lake  with 
black  spots  on  them.  These  spots  are  not  very  numer- 
ous, perhaps  a  dozen  on  one  fish.  They  are  on  the 
back,  sides,  fins  and  tails,  and  they  feel  like  shot  under 
the  skin.  We  have  examined  the  spots  under  a  micro- 
scope and  find  them,  as  viewed  by  the  eye,  to  be  1-32  of 


254     Modern  Fuhculture'in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

an  inch.  The  microscope  shows  them  to  be  a  cell  con- 
taining an  egg  with  a  living  embryo.  The  egg  is  about 
I -200  of  an  inch  in  diameter.  As  they  are  on  the  fins 
they  would  seem  to  come  from  the  outside.  Those  on 
the  sides  of  the  fish  have  the  egg  apparently  under  the 
scales  and  attached  to  the  skin  by  a  thread-like  ap- 
pendage which  pulls  out  on  removing  the  egg.  Is  this 
a  serious  matter?" 

I  have  seen  black  bass,  chubs,  sunfish  and  other 
species  well  .sprinkled  with  these  spots  in  early  sum- 
mer, and  later  in  the  season  found  worms  in  the  flesh  of 
the  fishes,  but  they  seemed  to  do  no  harm,  even  to 
people  who  ate  the  wormy  fish.  Somehow  I  connected 
the  spots  and  the  worms  together,  but  never  tried  to 
work  the  thing  out.  I  never  saw  them  on  trout. 


INTERNAL    PARASITES. 

I  took  a  tape-worm  thirty-six  inches  long  from  a 
shiner,  whose  extreme  length  was  4.5  inches.  The  fish 
took  my  fly  while  trouting  in  the  Adirondacks,  and  as 
it  was  so  unnaturally  plump  it  was  opened. 

White  intestinal  thread-worms  are  often  present  in 
trout,  and  these  worms  pass  from  the  intestines  to  the 
body  cavity,  and  even  through  the  air  bladder,  after  the 
trout  has  been  opened,  but  what  they  do  before  that 
can't  be  seen. 

Many  parasites  of  fishes,  like  tape-worms,  do  not 
complete  their  existence  in  the  fish,  but  their  final  host 
is  some  bird  or  mammal  which  eats  the  fish,  just  as  the 
tape-worm  of  the  hare  becomes  complete  in  the  fox; 
that  of  the  hog  in  man,  etc. 

The  trout  of  Yellowstone  Lake  are  infested  with 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  255 

worms  in  their  flesh.    Dr.  Leidy  described  this  worm 
under  the  name  of  Dibothrmm  cordiceps. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

i 

DISEASES. 

English  fishculturists,  anglers  and  anatomists  are 
greatly  troubled  by  what  they  call  the  "salmpn  dis- 
ease." Prof.  Huxley  said  of  it:  "At  first  small  whitish 
patches  appear  on  the  skin.  The  smooth  integument  of 
the  top  of  the  head,  or  of  the  end  of  the  snout,  is  a  very 
usual  locality,  but  the  adipose  fin  and  the  axillse  of  the 
paired  fins  are  also  among  the  first  parts  to  be  affected. 
If  there  is  an  abraded  or  wounded  surface,  the  disease 
is  pretty  sure  to  attack  it,  but  the  invasion  of  the  mal- 
ady is  in  nowise  dependent  upon  the  pre-existence  of 
an  injury.  .  .  .In  the  scaleless  parts  of  the  skin, 
sloughing  soon  sets  in  and  deep  burrowing  sores  are 
formed,  ...  If  the  fluffy,  whitish  coat  which  ie  so 
characteristic  of  the  diseased  skin — and  is  sometimes 
tenacious  enough  to  be  stripped  off  in  flakes  like  wet 
paper — is  examined  microscopically,  it  is  seen  to  con- 
sist chiefly  of  a  tangled  mass  of  fine  filaments  on  an 
average  about  1-2,000  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  which 
are  at  once  recognizable  as  the  stems  (or  hyphse,  as 
they  are  technically  called)  of  a  fungus,  Saprolegnia 
jerax,  similar  to  those  known  as  moulds." 

Prof.  Huxley  further  says :  "These  observations 
left  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  the  Saprolegnia  is  the 


256     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

cause  and  not  a  mere  accompaniment  of  the  salmon 
disease."  I  have  treated  of  this  in  the  preceding  chap- 
ter. Prof.  Huxley  thus  sums  up  the  present  state  of 
our  knowledge  respecting  the  salmon  disease : 

"i.  The  sole  cause  of  the  disease  is  the  fungus 
Saprolegnia  ferax,  which  burrows  in  and  destroys  the 
skin  of  the  fish. 

"2.  This  fungus  habitually  lives  on  dead  organic 
matter,  and  only  lives  in  fresh  water." 

3  and  4  give  the  mode  of  propagation  of  the  fungus. 

"5.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  the  existence  of  the 
cause  of  salmon  disease,  or  to  speak  more  generally,  of 
the  integumentary  mycosis  of  fresh-water  fishes,  is  in- 
dependent of  the  existence  of  fishes;  and  consequently 
that  the  extirpation  of  all  the  diseased  fish  in  a  river 
does  not  involve  the  extirpation  of  the  cause  of  the  dis- 
ease in  that  river. 

"6.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  Saprolegnia 
exists  in  its  saprophytic  form  in  most  fresh  waters, 
and  that  it  attacks  the  fish  of  most  rivers  occasionally. 
In  other  words,  the  mycosis  of  fresh-water  fishes  is  a 
widespread  sporadic  disease. 

"7.  That  which  it  is  now  desirable  to  ascertain  is  the 
nature  of  the  influences  under  which  the  sporadic  dis- 
ease suddenly  assumes  an  epidemic  character.  On 
this  point  we  have  very  little  light  at  present,  for  al- 
though there  is  some  reason  for  thinking  that  deficient 
oxygenation,  whether  produced  by  overcrowding  or 
otherwise,  may  favor  the  development  of  the  disease, 
and  though  it  is  possible  that  some  kinds  of  pollution 
may  favor  it,  yet  the  disease  sometimes  becomes  epi- 
demic under  conditions  in  which  these  two  predispos- 
ing causes  are  excluded;  and  it  does  not  always  appear 
when  they  are  present. 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  25? 

"8.  Epidemics  subside  spontaneously,  though  the 
fish  remain  in  fresh  water. 

"9.  The  productiveness  of  a  salmon  river  is  not  .nec- 
essarily interfered  with  by  even  a  violent  epidemic. 

"The  last  three  propositions  indicate  the  moral  of 
my  paper — which  is  to  make  sure  that  you  know  what 
you  are  about  before  meddling  with  the  salmon  dis- 
ease. Until  the  causes  which  convert  the  sporadic  into 
the  epidemic  disease  are  known,  all  interference  is  mere 
groping  in  the  dark;  and  when  they  are  known,  it  will 
be  a  great  question  whether  the  preventive  measures 
adopted  are  worth  their  cost. 

"Fishery  doctors  at  the  present  day  remind  me  of  hu- 
man doctors  in  my  youth — they  were  always  for  doing 
something.  I  remember  one  of  my  teachers  laid  down 
the  notable  maxim,  'when  you  are  in  doubt,  play  a 
trump/  and  I  should  think  that  those  of  us  who  have 
followed  this  advice,  in  the  last  fifty  years,  -must  have 
largely  added  to  the  bills  of  mortality.  Our  fishery 
doctors  are  of  the  same  mind  as  my  friend.  They  are — 
or  at  any  rate  ought  to  be — very  much  in  doubt,  and 
yet  they  continually  want  to  play  trumps  in  the  shape 
of  stringent  regulations  and  restrictions.  If  I  might 
tender  a  piece  of  advice,  I  would  say — don't." 

After  quoting  Huxley  I  can't  help  asking:  If  the 
fungus  (2)  only  lives  on  dead  organic  matter  why  it 
attacks  the  living  tissues  of  fish? 


A  DEAD  HORSE. 

Years  ago  a  man  asked  me  to  come  and  see  what 
was  the  trouble  with  his  trout  and  eggs.  As  he  put  it : 
"There  was  wool  growing  all  over  them."  I  told  him 


258     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

that  I  would  not  promise  to  find  the  trouble,  and  inti- 
mated that  my  honorarium  would  be  $25  and  expenses 
for  an  inspection.  He  agreed.  His  fish  were  in  bad 
shape ;  he  had  hatched  trout  successfully  the  winter  be- 
fore and  now  fungus  attacked  every  dead  egg  before  it 
had  been  dead  half  a  day.  I  tasted  the  water,  but 
learned  nothing  from  that;  looked  over  the  ponds  and 
their  inlets  without  finding  anything  wrong,  and  to  all 
his  questions  merely  replied  that  so  far  there  was  no 
visible  cause  for  the  trouble.  We  went  to  dinner  and  I 
was  too  worried  to  eat  much.  Perhaps  this  man,  whom 
I  had  never  met  before,  thought  me  a  fraud,  and  while 
my  time  was  valuable  to  me,  I  resolved  that  I  would 
not  take  his  money  if  I  could  do  him  no  good.  After 
dinner  I  proposed  a  trip  to  the  springs  at  the  head  of 
his  little  stream.  There  was  a  marshy  piece  of  wood- 
land, and  in  rubber  boots  we  went  into  it.  There, 
draining  into  his  ponds,  was  a  horse  which  had  died 
three  months  before.  My  advice  was :  "Haul  that 
horse  out  and  bury  it  where  no  water  from  it  will  flow 
into  your  springs.  Get  a  barrel  of  quicklime  and  cover 
the  spot  where  he  lies  and  also  over  all  the  space  you 
may  drag  him  where  the  surface  water  may  flow  into 
your  springs." 

He  looked  astonished  and  said :  ''Quicklime  will 
kill  trout,  and  if  I  do  that  they  will  all  die.  How 
does  that  horse,  which  died  last  fall,  make  my  trout 
woolly?" 

I  told  him  about  the  "woolly"  growth  from  dead  ani- 
mal matter  and  explained  that  quicklime  only  killed 
trout  because  it  was  "quick,"  and  that  well-slacked  lime 
would  not  hurt  his  fish,  and  that  his  barrel  of  lime 
would  be  very  dead  before  it  trickled  through  the 
swamp  to  his  ponds,  but  would  at  once  kill  all  the 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  259 

"woolly  germs."  He  followed  the  "prescription"  and 
was  so  well  pleased  that  he  sent  for  me  twice  again  for 
professional  advice — and  there  is  nothing  which  the  am- 
ateur fishctilturist  thinks  he  needs  less  than  professional 
advice.  He  seems  to  think  that  because  he  is  a  lover  of 
trout  or  an  angler  he  has  been  especially  endowed  with 
a  capacity  for  the  business  and  can  go  ahead  on 
some  original  plan.  He  makes  expensive  mistakes  and 
learns  in  that  very  dear  school.  It  is  a  singular  thing 
that  a  man  who  shoots  and  fishes  a  little  thinks  he 
knows  more  of  these  things  than  an  old  woodsman, 
and  flatters  himself  that  he  has  the  best  gun  ever  made 
and  the  best  dog  ever  whelped,  and  that  he  is  a  Daniel 
Boone,  Davy  Crockett  and  Natty  Bumpo  condensed 
into  one.  This  is  a  comfortable  and  satisfactory  belief, 
but  exceedingly  expensive  when  he  goes  unaided  into 
fishculture,  and  I  speak  from  a  memory  of  many  costly 
failures  when  there  was  no  one  to  instruct.  The  advice 
of  Huxley  is  excellent  and  bears  out  what  has  been 
said  in  previous  chapters. 


FISH  THAT  DIE  AFTER  SPAWNING. 

The  salmon  fishermen  of  our  western  coast  believe 
that  their  species  of  salmon  spawn  but  once  and  die. 
Some  shad  fishermen  on  the  Hudson  River  have  the 
same  belief.  Because  a  great  majority  die,  and  on  the 
Pacific  coast  line  the  shores  with  their  dead,  they  be- 
lieve that  all  die  after  spawning.  I  don't  believe  any 
such  thing.  Spawning  salmon  of  from  seventy  to  one 
hundred  pounds  have  been  taken  in  our  rivers  empty- 
ing into  the  Pacific,  and  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that 
this  was  their  first  trip  to  the  spawning  grounds.  A 


260     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt 


shad  will  have  the  nuclei  of  several  successive  spawn- 
ing seasons  behind  the  eggs  to  be  laid  when  she  is 
caught,  and  it  taxes  our  credulity  to  believe  th.  t  these 
are  not  to  be  used.  Our  domestic  fowls  show  nuclei 
for  many  settings  of  eggs  ;  and  there  the  case  rests,  as 
lawyers  say. 

AN   EPIDEMIC. 

One  year  I  had  an  epidemic  among  the  trout  at  Cold 
Spring  Harbor,  N.  Y.  Great  sores  appeared  on  the 
trout  and  they  died  by  the  hundred  every  day.  The 
Biological  Section  of  the  Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts 
and  Sciences  had  a  summer  laboratory  there,  with  stu- 
dents from  many  parts  of  the  country,  and  they  took 
the  dead  fish  for  study.  It  worried  me  into  loss  of  ap- 
petite and  sleep  to  see  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  great 
brook  and  brown  trout,  from  one  to  five  pounds  weight, 
laid  out  in  the  "morgue"  every  morning  for  burial,  with 
no  idea  of  the  cause  of  their  death.  The  scientists  could 
make  nothing  of  it,  and  it  was  not  the  fungus  called 
Saprolegnia.  There  was  merely  a  cancer-like  sore 
with  broken-down  tissue  which  flowed  out  of  the  sores 
in  a  pinkish  fluid,  and  that  was  all. 

After  a  careful  investigation  I  found  that  some  beef 
livers  which  came  from  New  York  were  affected  with 
tuberculosis.  I  had  forbidden  the  use  of  any  livers 
which  appeared  to  be  diseased,  and  a  year  or  two  be- 
fore had  entertained  the  idea  of  complaining  to  the 
Board  of  Health  about  the  tuberculous  beef  which  was 
being  slaughtered,  but  at  that  time  the  problem  was. 
where  to  get  good  livers.  I  finally  contracted  with  a 
Mr.  Abrams  to  furnish  livers  that  were  sound,  and 
after  that  the  disease  disappeared.  It  was  not  possible 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  261 

for  me  to  inspect  every  box  of  livers  which  came  from 
New  York  daily,  and  in  my  report  to  the  New  York 
Fish  Commission  for  the  year  I  was  at  a  loss  to  account 
for  the  mortality. 

The  following  circular  was  issued  by  me  to  trout 
breeders: 

"My  Dear  Sir:  During  the  summer  of  1890,  a  dis- 
ease which  was  new  to  me  appeared  among  the  trout 
in  the  State  ponds  under  my  charge.  Both  brook  and 
brov/n  trout.,  large  and  small.,  died  in  great  numbers, 
especially  the  larger  ones  of  from  two  to  four  pounds. 
I  have  learned  that  this  was  epidemic  on  Long  Island, 
and  in  portions  of  New  Jersey,  and  wish  to  trace  its 
range,  hence  this  circular  is  addressed  to  you  in  the 
hope  of  learning  more  of  its  ravages. 

"There  was  no  appearance  of  fungus  of  the  cottony 
sort,  which  follows  an  injury  to  the  skin,  with  which 
we  are  all  familiar.  The  first  indication  of  the  disease 
was  a  white  spot,  usually  on  the  side,  above  or  near  the 
anus,  of  perhaps  an  inch  in  diameter.  Within  ten  days 
a  hole  would  appear  in  this  and  shortly  afterward  the 
fish  would  die.  Then  it  would  appear  that  under  the 
skin  a  patch  of  dead  and  decomposed  tissue  was  found, 
three  to  four  inches  long  by  one  to  two  inches  wide, 
and  on  the  slightest  pressure  this  would  spurt  out  a 
dark  fluid.  Under  the  microscope  only  broken-down 
tissue  in  a  state  of  partial  fluidity,  with  blood  corpus- 
cles, could  be  seen.  To  my  unprofessional  eye  it  more 
nearly  resembled  a  severe  case  of  Epithelioma,  or  skin 
cancer,  which  I  once  saw  on  a  man.  The  disease  ap- 
peared in  May  and  continued  into  August,  but  as  noth- 
ing was  to  be  gained  by  letting  the  matter  get  into  the 
newspapers  it  was  kept  quiet. 


262     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

"I  now  wish  to  mention  this  epidemic  in  my  next 
reports  to  the  State  and  to  the  United  States  Fish  Com- 
missions, and  will  feel  obliged  if  you  can  give  any  in- 
formation concerning  it;  its  character,  time  of  appear- 
ance and  departure,  and  extent  of  territory  over  which 
it  extended,  with  the  privilege  of  using  your  reply  for 
publication  over  your  name.  I  can  say  that  during  an 
experience  in  fishculture  covering  nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
century  no  such  disease  among  fishes  has  been  ob- 
served by  me,  nor  has  it  been  recorded  by  others,  to 
my  knowledge. 

"Believing  that  our  combined  experience  may  possi- 
bly be  of  future  use,  anything  which  you  may  say  on 
this  subject,  if  such  a  thing  has  ever  been  brought  to 
your  notice,  will  be  of  value. 

"Very  respectfully  yours, 

"FRED  MATHER/' 

Dr.  Bashford  Dean  and  Dr.  Stratford,  of  Columbia 
College,  and  several  other  men  eminent  in  the  study 
of  animals  in  health  and  disease  had  never  seen  nor 
heard  of  anything  like  it.  Prof.  H.  W.  Conn,  of  the 
Wesleyan  University,  Middletown,  Conn.,  thought 
that  it  was  caused  by  bacteria.  These  forms  were  pres- 
ent, as  they  always  are  in  diseased  tissue,  but  whether 
they  were  the  primary  cause  or  not  Prof.  Conn  did  not 
care  to  say. 

Our  ponds  were  clean,  and  as  there  is  no  chance  for 
pollution  above  us,  the  cause  was  to  be  looked  for  be- 
yond foul  water.  Sometimes  a  trout  would  be  sudden- 
ly seized  with  a  spasm,  or  giddiness,  and  would  rush 
about  on  its  side  without  seeming  to  know  where  it 
was  going,  and  this,  with  the  questions  of  summer  vis- 
itors, who  asked  to  know  what  I  could  not  tell  them, 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  263 

made  me  wish  that  there  was  a  wail  about  the  place  that 
even  I  could  not  get  over.  My  orders  were  not  to  let  a 
visitor  see  a  dead  fish';  but  the  fish  would  die  in  their 
sight,  and  one  dead  fish  is  more  interesting  to  a  visitor 
than  a  thousand  live  ones,  for  it  affords  a  chance  for 
questions  that  no  man  can  answer. 

Even  in  a  hatching  trough  thirty  thousand  live  and 
healthy  fish  will  not  be  noticed  by  a  visitor  if  a  dead 
one  is  to  be  seen.  A  statement  that  out  of  the  same 
number  of  pigs,  colts,  chickens  or  children  the  death 
rate  would  be  as  great,  if  not  greater,  brings  it  squarely 
to  them ;  but  during  the  epidemic,  when  a  dozen  or  more 
large  fish  were  seen  belly  up,  there  was  only  one  thing 
to  do,  and  that  was  to  have  a  man  to  keep  visitors  in- 
terested elsewhere  while  the  dead  were  being  taken  out 
and  buried. 

Although  the  loss  was  not,  pecuniarily  speaking,  a 
personal  one  to  me,  yet  no  man  ever  felt  more  disap- 
pointed at  seeing  the  results  of  his  labor  swept  away 
than  I  did.  My  long  experience  in  fishculture  fur- 
nished no  antidote  to  counteract  the  poison  that  was 
more  than  decimating  the  stock  which  I  had  carefully 
reared,  and  on  which  my  professional  reputation  hung. 
Many  a  time  a  husky  voice  belied  an  assumed  indif- 
ference as  I  told  a  man  to  "bury  'em  in  the  geranium 
bed,  'twill  make  'em  bloom  in  the  fall,"  but  at  night 
the  question,  "Is  this  station  which  I  selected  and  have 
tried  to  build  up  a  failure?"  was  annoying  beyond  ex- 
pression. 

During  the  summer  of  1891  only  one  fish  manifested 
any  sign  of  this  disease,  and  it  was  buried  in  July.  The 
summer  was  an  exceedingly  good  one  for  both  fry  and 
adult  fish,  and  the  losses  in  each  class  were  small. 

From  many  answers  received  in  1891,  I  quote  the 


264     Modern  Fishcidture  in  fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

following,  which  show  where  the  disease  was  un- 
known : 

"Never  had  in  our  State  hatcheries  any  epidemic  ex- 
cept among  fish  less  than  six  months  old." — >C.  S. 
White,  Fish  Commissioner  of  West  Virginia. 

"We  had  no  disease  at  the  South  Side  Club,  such  as 
you  describe  last  year.  Our  large  trout  were  remark- 
ably healthy.  The  great  loss  in  old  fish  is  during  and 
after  the  spawning  season ;  not  only  those  suffering 
from  fungus  on  wounds  received  in  fighting,  but  many 
seem  to  have  died  from  no  apparent  cause.  In  the  win- 
ter of  1889-90  the  loss  was  heavier  than  ever  before. 
This  season  it  was  light." — Roland  Redmond,  Presi- 
dent South  Side  Sportsman's  Club.  * 

Neither  was  the  disease  observed  at  Eastport,  L.  I., 
according  to  Dr.  H.  G.  Preston,  President  of  the  Ox- 
ford Rod  and  Gun  Club,  in  the  ponds  of  the  club  at  that 
place,  some  thirty  miles  east  of  the  South  Side  Club. 

The  following  persons  have  seen  more  or  less  of  this 
epidemic,  or  one  similar  to  it : 

"While  I  was  an  employee  of  the  State  Hatchery  at 
Caledonia,  N.  Y.,  in  1883  or  1884,  the  large  trout  died 
off  by  hundreds  in  the  summer,  with  a  disease,  I  should 
say,  similar  to  the  one  that  you  mention.  It  could  not 
have  been  the  common  fungus,  which  is  usually  caused 
by  an  injury  to  the  skin.  I  used  to  pick  out  the  trout 
every  morning,  or  assist  in  doing  so,  and  I  believe  that 
if  not  the  same  disease,  it  is  closely  allied  to  the  one  of 
which  you  speak,  and  I  noticed  that  there  was  consid- 
erable dark  fluid  oozing  from  many  of  them." — John 
G.  Roberts,  Supt.  Adirondack  Station  N.  Y.  Fish  Com- 
mission. 

*  This  club  is  at  Oakdale,  on  the  south  side  of  Long  Island, 
and  distant  from  our  ponds,  on  the  north  side,  about  twenty- 
five  miles  in  a  direct  line.  F.  M. 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  265 

Mr.  E.  F.  Boehm,  now  Superintendent  of  the  State 
hatchery  at  Newton's  Corners,  N.  Y.,  was  in  the  Cale- 
donia hatchery  with  Mr.  Roberts,  and  writes  prac- 
tically the  same  thing. 

"Six  years  ago,  about  the  same  disease  appeared 
among  my  trout  from  April  to  July.  In  June  they  died 
in  great  numbers,  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  every 
night,  and  I  was  discouraged.  One  day  I  saw  that  a 
great  many  more  would  die  and  thought  that  the  cause 
might  be  from  feeding  stale  beef  hearts.  I  stopped 
feeding  for  ten  days  and  then  began  giving  them  live 
minnows,  and  in  a  week's  time  the  mortality  stopped 
and  I  have  lost  very  few  trout  since." — Albert  Rackow, 
Elmont,  L.  I. 

That  there  are  occasional  epidemics  among  fish  is  a 
fact  familiar  to  all  who  have  had  much  experience  with 
them,  and  the  cause  is  not  at  all  understood.  In  the 
summer  of  1850  or  1851  the  perch  and  pickerel  in 
Kinderhook  Lake,  Rensselaer  County,  N.  Y.,  died  in 
great  numbers  and  came  in  shore  to  die;  some  boys 
who  had  walked  down  to  the  lake  from  Albany  with 
me  refused  to  fish  or  touch  the  fish  that  were  strug- 
gling near  the  shore,  we  believing  that  they  had  been 
poisoned.  In  1856  I  saw  thousands  of  black  bass  dead 
upon  the  shores  of  the  small  lakes  along  the  Mississippi 
River,  near  Potosi,  Wisconsin.  Some  lakes  in  Central 
New  York — Hemlock,  Honeoye  and  Canadice  Lakes 
— had  an  epidemic  that  killed  many  perch  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1870.  In  1883,  St.  John's  Lake,  at  Cold  Spring 
Harbor,  N.  Y.,  had  a  disease  which  killed  the  sunfish 
in  such  numbers  that  the  air  was  tainted.  Greenwood 
Lake,  lying  partly  in  New  York  and  in  New  Jersey, 
has  been  visited  by  a  similar  epidemic,  although  I  can- 
not give  the  years. 


266    Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

To  further  prove  that  these  things  are  beyond  the 
knowledge  and  control  of  man,  and  also  to  show  that 
they  are  not  confined  to  fresh  water,  I  will  cite :  With- 
in ten  years,  more  or  less,  the  United  States  Fish  Com- 
mission discovered  a  new  and  valuable  food  fish  by 
methods  not  pursued  by  the  commercial  fishermen  on 
the  New  England  coast.  The  fish  had  no  common 
name,  of  course,  and  as  the  scientists  had  christened  it 
by  the  pretty  and  simple  name  of  Lopholatilus  chamce- 
leonticeps,  and  as  it  was  evident  that  the  marketman 
and  the  club  steward  might  not  grasp  the  full  mean- 
ing of  all  the  syllables,  the  last  one  in  its  front  name 
was  shortened  and  it  bloomed  upon  the  market  as  the 
"tile  fish." 

It  had  hardly  got  in  favor  with  the  New  York  and 
Boston  hotels  when  reports  from  ship  captains  came  in 
that  they  had  sailed  through  miles  of  strange  fish  float- 
ing dead  upon  the  water.  This  was  about  1884,  and 
not  a  single  fish  of  this  species  was  taken  until  1898. 
It  was  believed  that  they  had  been  exterminated  by 
some  submarine  disturbances,  but  our  later  reports 
show  that  enough  escaped  the  catastrophe  to  perpet- 
uate the  species.  It  is  a  valuable  food  fish,  but  one 
which,  by  its  deep  water  habitat,  escaped  our  fishermen 
until  the  Fish  Commission  found  it  by  fishing  beyond 
the  banks,  where  the  hardy  cod  fishers  do  not  go.  It 
is  now  increasing  in  numbers. 

Cases  of  mortality  among  fishes  might  be  extended, 
it  being  well  known  that  in  Lake  Ontario  some  of  the 
smaller  "lake  herring"  die  off  yearly  in  great  numbers, 
a  fact  about  which  we  have  nothing  to  base  an  opinion. 

The  following  is  from  a  recent  New  York  paper: 

"Port  Jervis,  N.  Y.,  May  18,  1898.— The  shores  of 
Monhagen  and  Highland  lakes,  near  Middletown,  are 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  26; 

lined  with  thousands  of  fish,  mostly  dead  catfish.  Men 
have  been  engaged  for  three  days  in  removing  them, 
but  are  making  no  headway.  As  they  clear  a  patch,  it 
is  covered  again  with  dead  fish  washed  to  shore.  Hun- 
dreds of  wagon  loads  have  been  removed  in  this  man- 
ner. The  bass  with  which  the  lakes  were  stocked  a 
few  years  ago  do  not  appear  to  be  affected.  A  similar 
phenomenon  was  experienced  in  Green's  Basin,  north 
of  here,  a  few  weeks  ago.  No  explanation  of  the  oc- 
currence can  be  had." 

Summing  all  this  up,  there  seems  to  be  no  way  of 
preventing  disease,  whether  sporadic  or  epidemic, 
among  fish,  except  to  keep  the  ponds  clean  if  they 
are  densely  populated  and  to  treat  cases  of  fungus  with 
salt  water,  where  possible,  and  to  remove  every  in- 
fected fish  at  once. 

Most  other  diseases  of  trout  in  ponds,  such  as  blind- 
ness, the  turning  in  of  the  flap  of  the  gill  cover,  where  it 
grows  fast,  exposing  the  gill,  are  not  common  enough 
to  warrant  seeking  a  remedy.  In  blindness  there  is  no 
hope  for  improvement,  and  as  a  gill  cover  once  turned 
in  and  grown  fast  refuses  to  be  straightened  out,  it 
mav  be  well  to  let  it  be  as  it  is.* 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

ENEMIES. 

As  it  would  require  a  volume  to  tell  of  the  enemies  of 
salt-water  fishes — which,  by  the  way,  are  mostly  other 
species  of  fish,  and  the  marine  mammals — this  chapter 

*  See  chapter  xliii  on  the  working,  or  blooming,  of  ponds. 


268     Modern  Fuhculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

will  merely  glance  at  such  forms  of  life  as  prey  on  the 
fish  of  rivers,  lakes  and  streams. 


FISH. 

Large  trout  are  usually  cannibals,  and  in  private 
ponds  should  not  be  allowed  to  live.  I  have  seen  a 
trout  try  to  swallow  one  that  was  so  near  its  own  size 
that  it  could  not  pouch  it  and  it  swam  about  all  day 
with  a  portion  of  the  tail  and  caudal  fin — they  are  not 
the  same — protruding  from  its  jaws.  Such  fellows  I 
always  netted  out,  or  speared,  for  once  they  begin  the 
habit  they  never  stop  it,  and  they  will  devour  many 
times  their  own  weight  in  a  month. 

A  small  fish  known  as  miller's  thumb,  blob,  muffle 
jaw,  and  star-gazer,  belonging  to  the  genus  Cottus,  or 
Uranidea,  for  they  shift  the  names  occasionally,  is 
called  bullhead  in  England.  It  is  a  homely,  big-headed 
little  thing,  and  Jordan  records  nine  species,  from  three 
to  five  inches  long,  one  species  reaching  seven  inches. 
They  are  found  in  the  Great  Lakes,  rivers  and  streams 
from  Lake  Superior  to  Georgia.  They  lie  on  the  bot- 
tom or  under  stones  and  move  after  the  manner  of  the 
darters.  This  fresh-water  sculpin  is  one  of  the  natural 
checks  on  the  overproduction  of  trout  and  salmon.  It 
eats  the  eggs  and  the  young  fish.  It  is  found  in  all 
trout  waters  as  far  as  examined.  It  is  very  destructive. 
At  an  experiment  once  made  in  the  aquarium  of  the 
United  States  Fish  Commission,  in  Washington,  a 
miller's  thumb  about  4^  inches  long  ate  at  a  single 
meal,  and  all  within  a  minute  or  two,  twenty-two  little 
trout,  each  from  three-quarters  of  an  inch  to  an  inch  in 
length. 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  269 

Most  fish  will  eat  smaller  ones,  if  we  except  the  stur- 
geons, the  whitefishes,  suckers,  carp  and  goldfish,  and 
these  will  eat  fish  eggs.  The  pikes  eat  nothing  but  fish, 
and  we  have  five  species  of  them,  while  Europe  has  but 
one.  Eels  are  very  destructive. 


REPTILES    AND    BATRACHIANS. 

Most  of  these  eat  fish  to  a  greater  or  less  extent.  The 
water-snakes,  garter-snakes  and  the  black-snake  eat 
fish,  and  perhaps  other  species  may  also  eat  them.  All 
the  snapping  turtles,  pond  and  river  turtles  eat  fish. 
The  little  land  tortoises  called  "box  turtles"  may  take 
insects,  but  will  not  eat  fish.  I  have  kept  them  for 
years,  and  their  food,  as  far  as  I  could  observe,  was 
vegetable.  Those  large  salamander-like  forms  all  eat 
fish.  They  are  the  "mud  eel"  (Siren  lacertina),  thirty- 
six  inches,  Northern  Indiana  to  North  Carolina  and 
south;  the  proteus,  mud  puppy,  water  dog  (Necturus 
maculates),  called  "lizard"  in  the  Detroit  River,  twenty- 
four  inches,  Eastern  United  States,  chiefly  north  and 
west  of  the  Alleghanies;  this  animal  has  its  gills  outside 
its  head  ;  I  have  eaten  this  beast.  The  hellbender  ( Cryp- 
tobranchus  alleghaniensis),  twenty-four  inches,  Ohio 
valley  and  south,  lives  largely  on  small  fish.  The  ranges 
and  lengths  given  are  from  Jordan's  "Manual  of  the 
Vertebrates." 

Frogs,  especially  the  large  ones,  eat  fish,  and  I  once 
took  from  one  a  young  snapping  turtle,  about  an  inch 
(2^  c.m.)  in  diameter.  The  toad  frequents  the  water  at 
times  but  does  not  eat  fish. 

The  frog  is  popularly  supposed  to  spend  its  time  in 
summer  in  rendering  Wagnerian  operas  and  catching- 


2/o     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

insects,  but  I  have  taken  from  its  maw  small  frogs  and 
fish.  Once,  while  fishing  in  the  Adirondacks  with 
"Jack"  Sheppard,  the  guide,  a  great  bullfrog  plunked 
in  the  water  and  soon  climbed  the  log  again,  swallow- 
ing something. 

'That  fellow's  got  a  fish,"  said  Jack. 

"Don't  believe  it.  His  splash  would  scare  a  fish,  and 


HELLBENDERS  (CryptobrancJius  allcghanicnsis}. 

he  can't  swim  fast  enough  to  catch  a  fish.  Let's  catch 
him  and  see." 

"For  the  cigars  at  Bennett's?" 

"For  the  cigars.  He  never'  got  a  fish  in  that  short 
time,  after  that  plunk." 

Jack  reeled  in  his  line  until  it  was  about  the  length 
of  the  rod,  while  I  slowly  paddled  and  drifted  up  to  the 
batrachian.  Jack  swung  the  fly  above  his  nose,  and  he 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  271 

was  our  frog.  "Make  it  half  a  dozen  cigars?"  Jack 
asked. 

"All  right;  make  it  a  round  dozen." 

I  had  on  a  previous  day  remonstrated  with  Jack 
about  not  killing  a  frog  before  he  cut  it  in  two  and 
skinned  the  legs;  the  sight  of  the  living  portion  an- 
noyed me,  and  as  he  was  my  guide  I  forbade  the  prac- 
tice. He  unhooked  the  frog  and  handed  it  to  me.  A 
blow  on  the  head  with  a  heavy  knife-handle  and  a  cut 
into  the  brain  stopped  all  feeling,  and  then  he  opened 
his  inner  works,  and  there  was  a  little  sunfish,  about 
two  inches  long. 

"Jack/'  I  remarked,  "youVe  won;  but  as  you  were 
booked  to  win  in  any  event,  as  I  buy  the  cigars  every 
night,  you  have  not  won  much.  I  am  the  real  win- 
ner, because  I  have  learned  something.  Now  let's  not 
waste  this  fellow,  but  stop  trouting  and  get  frogs 
enough  for  breakfast.  How  did  that  frog  catch  that 
fish?  That's  what  I  want  to  know." 

Jack  tossed  the  little  fish  overboard  a^nd  merely  re- 
marked: "It's  funny  how  they  do  it,  but  they  do." 

"Jack  Sheppard,  I  asked  you  a  plain  question  that 
should  have  a  straight  answer,  and  all  I  get  is  the  re- 
frain of  a  music  hall  song.  How  did  the  frog  catch 
that  fish?  Did  it  catch  it  when  it  made  the  dive  from 
the  log,  or  did  the  frog  dive  to  the  bottom  and  come  up 
under  the  fish?  That's  the  question." 

Jack  threw  the  skin  of  the  legs  overboard  and  fol- 
lowed it  with  the  body  of  the  frog,  laid  some  fresh  grass 
over  the  trout  in  the  creel,  placed  the  legs  on  the  grass, 
looked  up  and  remarked:  "I'll  be  durnea  if  I  know."  * 

WATER  SNAKES. — Few  sportsmen  know  more  about 

*  This  and  some  other  anecdotes  in  this  chapter  were  orig- 
inally written  by  me  for  Forest  and  Stream,  F.  M. 


272     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

snakes  than  to  have  about  half  a  dozen  names  to  cover 
them  all,  and  few  men  see  more  snakes  than  the  men  who 
fish  and  shoot,  yet  Jordan  ("Manual  of  the  Vertebrates") 
gives  us  twenty-four  genera  and  fifty-three  species  in  the 
northern  United  States.  Of  these  there  are  four  which 
haunt  marshy  places  and  feed  mainly  on  fish  and  frogs, 
although  none  of  them  would  neglect  a  bird  if  it 
offered,  whether  the  bird  was  nesting  on  the  ground  or 
feeding.  And  the  other  species  may  also  take  fish,  for 
all  I  know,  while  it  is  sure  that  none  of  them  would 
decline  a  frog. 

These  four  piscivorous  serpents  have  come  fre- 
quently under  my  notice  at  times  when  I  have  been 
fishing  alone  from  a  boat  or  a  log  as  a  "contemplative 
angler.".  That  is  the  way  to  see  not  only  snakes,  but 
other  life,  and  I  have  fished  with  the  four  fish  eaters 
and  have  seen  them  fish.  I  do  not  kill  all  snakes;  in 
fact,  I  love  to  pet  the  "puff-adder,"  or  "hog-nosed 
viper,"  for  it  is  kind  and  likes  petting ;  it  is  not  poison- 
ous, as  the  majority  say  it  is,  but  it  flattens  its  head  and 
threatens,  then  I  pick  it  up  and  we  are  friends.  But 
the  "four,"  the  "big  four,"  and  we  might  add,  "the 
dirty  four,"  I  kill  them  on  sight.  Two  of  them  are  as 
poisonous  as  the  rattlesnake,  and  the  others  are  vile 
beasts. 

The  common  water  snake  of  the  North  (Tropidonotus 
sipedon)  grows  to  a  length  of  four  feet.  It  is  of  a  dirty 
brown  color,  with  darker  squares.  It  ranges  from 
Maine  to  Texas,  and  is  found  along  the  streams,  a 
cross,  disagreeable  reptile.  From  1868  to  1876  I  had 
trout  ponds  at  Honeoye  Falls,  Monroe  county,  N.  Y., 
and  this  snake  was  a  pest.  The  soil  was  a  stiff  clay,  and 
a  crawfish  hole  would  never  cave  in,  buUmade  a  good 
place  for  Tropidonotus  sipedon  to  hide  in.  On  approach- 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies'*  273 

ing  the  ponds  in  summer  there  would  be  many  of  these 
snakes  seen  to  dodge  into  the  water  and  hide  under 
the  overhanging  grass.  It  was  fun  to  see  lady  visitors 
screech  when  I  threw  off  my  coat  and  plunged  the  left 
arm  under  the  bank,  bringing  out  the  angry  beast, 
which,  if  not  taken  too  near  the  neck,  vented  its  wrath 
in  sinking  its  teeth  into  my  hand.  But  it  was  only  like 
a  brier  scratch;  not  half  as  severe  afterward  as  the 
prick  from  the  spine  of  a  catfish,  but  when  my  good 
right  hand  took  the  reptile  by  the  head  and  twisted  it 
from  its  body,  some  people  thought  it  cruel.  To  me  it 
was  "cruel"  to  see  a  snake  take  a  trout,  especially  one 
that  I  had  raised.  Yet  that  snake  filled  its  place  in 
nature ;  the  main  trouble  is  that  man  writes  up  all  these 
things  from  his  point  of  view,  just  as  I  am  doing. 

The  other  non-poisonous  water  snake  which  I  know, 
although  others  are  recorded,  is  the  Southern  one  (T. 
fasciatus),  which  has  dark  vertical  bands  on  its  sides, 
and  has  a  reddish-brown  belly.  This  snake  is  seldom 
found  north  of  Georgia.  I  knew  it  quite  well,  having 
looked  it  over  for  poison  fangs  and  found  it  to  be  harm- 
less, so  when  a  lady  from  Ponchitoula  landed  one  and 
was  about  to  spring  out  of  the  boat,  I  called  to  her 
to  swing  it  over  to  me.  She  did  so,  and  I  was  tempted 
to  bite  the  animal's  head  off,  just  for  bravado,  but 
merely  unhooked  it  and  killed  it  with  my  heel. 

The  Northern  sportsmen  should  remember  this: 
Our  North  American  poisonous  serpents  have  trian- 
gular heads  and  also  have  a  deep  pit  between  the  eye 
and  the  nostril,  like  a  second  nostril.  The  snake  known 
as  a  copperhead  in  the  North  and  cottonmouth  in  the 
_South  (Ancistrodon  contortrix)  has  the  top  of  its  head  a 
coppery-red,  and  a  lot  of  V-shaped  blotches  on  its  back. 
If  I  am  not  mistaken,  it  is  called  "pilot"  and  "rattle- 


274     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

snake's  mate"  in  Pennsylvania.  It  is  very  poisonous, 
but  is  not  as  common  as  it  was.  While  fishing  for  black 
bass  in  the  Delaware  River,  one  crawled  out  of  the 
water  with  a  perch  in  its  mouth  so  near  me  that  I  killed 
it  with  a  stone. 

From  Illinois  south  dwells  the  water  moccasin  (A. 
piscivorus),  said  by  Jordan  to  be  the  most  dangerous  of 
our  snakes.  I  have  seen  them  hanging  on  bushes  over 
the  water  ready  for  fish  or  frog,  and  have  killed  several 
that  had  fish  in  them.  When  fishing  in  Southern  waters 
I  keep  a  good  lookout  for  these  animals/which  give  no 
warning  rattle,  but  carry  small  doses  of  sudden  death 
ready  to  be  injected  into  the  leg  of  a  peaceful  angler. 

TORTOISES  AND  TURTLES. — In  America  we  popularly 
call  them  all  "turtles,"  and  the  distinction  of  "tortoise" 
for  the  land  and  fresh-water  kind  is  almost  unknown, 
while  the  principal  exception  is  that  delicate  box  of  gela- 
tinous meat,  the  diamond-back  terrapin  of  the  salt-water 
marshes.  I  never  knew  the  box  tortoise  to  eat  fish,  and 
I  have  had  them  in  captivity  for  years;  they  seemed 
fond  of  fruits,  melons  and  tomatoes. 

All  the  pond  and  river  turtles  are  great  fish  eaters. 
They  will  float  up  quietly  under  a  fish  and  make  a  grab 
for  it.  Some  years  ago  I  was  using  a  live  minnow  for 
black  bassy  on  Long  Island,  when  I  saw  a  great  snap- 
ping turtle  take  the  minnow  and  go  below.  A  few  pulls 
showed  that  a  trout  rod  would  never  stir  a  thirty-pound 
turtle  from  the  mud  and  weeds,  and  I  kept  weaving 
the  rod  from  side  to  side  in  order  to  cut  the  snell  on 
the  reptile's  jaw,  in  order  not  to  lose  the  entire  leader. 
The  game  worked,  and  a  hook  was  the  only  loss.  I 
have  taken  these  brutes  on  night  lines  set  for  eels,  but 
there  were  hooks  selected  for  that  work,  and  no  gut 
snells. 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  275 

The  large,  soft-shelled  turtles  of  the  Great  Lake  re- 
gion and  the  South  are  also  savage  fellows.  A  young 
man  who  was  fishing  near  me  in  the  Pamunky  River, 
and  using  strong  tackle,  pulled  in  one  of  these  critters 
and  held  it  up  to  show  me.  Soon  he  yelled  for  help, 
and  I  rowed  over  to  him  and  found  the  turtle  fast  to 
his  shoe  and  biting  his  foot.  He  was  in  too  much  agony 
to  help  himself,  and  I  did  not  know  what  to  do.  The 
first  impulse  was  to  seize  the  long  neck  and  shut  off  the 
turtle's  wind;  as  I  did  this  I  realized  that  it  could  do 
without  breathing  for  an  hour  or  two,  and  all  the  while 
the  man  was  in  agony  with  the  cruel  beak  forcing  itself 
through  the  thin  upper  of  his  shoe  and  into  his  foot. 
On  the  seat  beyond  him  lay  one  of  those  strong  dirk- 
knives  which  are  sold  to  would-be  sportsmen  as  ''hunt- 
ing knives."  Fortunately  it  was  sharp,  as  well  as 
strong,  and  the  way  I  vivisected  the  lower  jaw  out  of 
that  turtle  took  ?11  my  strength,  and  would  have  won 
applause  from  the  cruelty  society.  The  young  man 
fainted  at  the  finish,  but  a  little  water  and  fanning 
brought  him  around.  When  his  shoe  was  removed 
there  was  much  blood  in  it,  and  on  taking  off  his  stock- 
ing I  found  that  the  little  toe  was  nearly  severed,  and 
the  next  one  was  injured.  I  bound  up  his  foot  in  his 
handkerchief  and  towed  his  boat  to  White  House  land- 
ing, where  he  had  friends.  He  lost  one  toe,  however. 
He  said  that  the  turtle  had  swallowed  the  hook,  and 
he  had  cut  the  line  to  let  him  have  it,  when  the  turtle 
began  running  around  to  escape,  and  he  kicked  at  it. 
"Well.''  said  I,  "you  keep  that  hunting  knife  as  a  re- 
minder, not  only  of  the  loss  of  your  toe,  but  as  the  first 
instance  known  where  such  a  knife  was  found  to  be 
useful*' 

Passing  from  turtles,  which  are  truly  dangerous, 


Modern  Pishcutture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Wale?. 


down  to  the  little  "skillypots"  which  sun  themselves 
on  logs,  is  like  descending  from  tiger  hunting  to  shoot- 
ing rabbits.  The  turtles  before  mentioned  never  sun 
themselves  on  logs.  They  may  float  on  the  water  a 
few  minutes  when  they  come  up  for  air,  but  they  re- 
main in  the  water  at  all  times,  except  when  eggs  are 
to  be  laid  on  land  for  the  sun  to  hatch.  Here  is  a  grand 
division  not  noticed  in  the  books.  From  the  big  ''slid- 
ers" of  the  South  to  the  painted  and  spotted  pond  tur- 
tles of  the  North,  they  are  all  fish  eaters. 

BIRDS.  —  All  ducks  eat  some  small  fish  occasionally, 
and  some  birds  live  almost  exclusively  upon  them.  These 
are  the  grebes,  helldivers,  loons,  gannets,  pelicans,  cor- 
morants, the  mergensers  or  sheldrakes,  herons  (often 
miscalled  "cranes"),  bald  eagle,  osprey  or  "fish-hawk," 
and  kingfisher.  The  gulls  eat  fish,  or  any  other  thing 
that  comes  handy,  but  as  they  are  not  divers  it  is  only 
the  dead  or  injured  fish  that  come  to  the  surface  which 
they  can  get. 

THE  KINGFISHER.  —  This  jolly  bird  is  common  every- 
where, whether  up  some  little  trout  stream,  which  the 
angler  has  just  discovered,  but  which  the  kingfisher 
knew  years  before,  or  along  the  rocks  and  beaches  of 
old  ocean,  where  it  seeks  its  prey  among  the  breakers. 
There  is  no  bit  of  fresh  or  salt  water  on  this  continent 
that  the  kingfisher  does  not  frequent  and  where  its 
cheery  whir,  like  the  song  of  the  reel,  is  not  heard.  Every 
youthful  angler  saw  one  on  his  first  fishing  trip,  and 
also  learned  its  name,  which  fortunately  is  the  same 
from  Florida  to  Alaska.  The  Germans  call  it  the  icebird 
(Eisvogel},  and  the  name  seems  inappropriate,  al- 
though it  often  remains  all  winter  along  the  northern 
coast,  near  open  waters. 

Once  I  cast  a  minnow  for  black  bass,  and  some  fish 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  277 

struck  at  it  and  knocked  the  bait  on  top  of  a  lily  pad. 
A  passing  kingfisher  saw  it,  stopped,  hovered  and  dove. 
The  bird  struck  the  water  hard  just  as  the  minnow 
floundered  into  it,  and  bore  the  fish  some  feet  in  the 
air  until  it  learned  that  its  prey  was  fast  to  something, 
when  the  bird  dropped  the  fish  and  alighted  on  a  dead 
limb  and  scolded  away.  In  fact  it  always  scolds  when 
it  misses,  and  I  have  been  in  doubt  whether  it  can 
spring  its  rattle  with  a  fish  in  its  bill.  By  the  marks  on 
this  minnow  the  long  bill  of  the  bird  did  not  pierce  it, 
but  it  struck  the  fish  about  the  middle,  leaving  a  mark 
on  each  side. 

The  kingfisher  sizes  up  its  prey  and  does  not  take  a 
fish  which  it  cannot  swallow  whole.  It  takes  the  fish 
head  first,  after  it  has  seized  it  crosswise  and  gone  to  a 
limb  to  swallow  it.  This  I  have  learned  by  dissection, 
for  as  a  fishculturist  I  was  forced  to  protect  my  trout 
fry  from  a  bird  which  has  always  been  a  welcome  com- 
panion on  angling  trips. 

The  kingfishers  nest  in  holes  in  the  bank,  usually 
under  the  protecting  roots  of  trees,  and  the  young  seem 
to  be  able  to  reject  fish  bones,  or  to  pass  them  undi- 
gested, I  don't  know  which.  Nor  do  I  know  how  th£ 
young  are  fed,  whether  as  pigeons  are  fed,  or  whether 
the  old  takes  a  fish  to  the  nest  and  picks  it  to  pieces  for 
the  fledglings.  In  fact,  there  are  many  things  which 
we  may  never  know  of  the  life  history  of  wild  birds, 
because  we  cannot  be  allowed  to  intrude  upon  their 
privacy. 

THE  OSPREY. — This  is  a  large  bird  of  the  great  fam- 
ily of  falcons,  which  includes  the  eagles,  hawks  and 
kites.  Osprey  is  the  correct  name  of  the  bird,  which  is 
called  "fish-hawk"  in  many  parts  of  our  country,  and 
not  without  reason.  It  ranges  almost  over  the  world, 


278     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

and  is  not  confined  to  America.  This  fact,  in  combina- 
tion with  the  other  fact  that  the  name  "osprey"  is  more 
universal  than  "fish-hawk,"  leads  me  to  use  the  name 
which  is  wider  known,  even  if  not  so  descriptive. 

Did  you  ever  watch  a  kingfisher  hover  at  fifty  feet, 
dive  and  strike  its  prey ;  or  an  osprey  do  the  same  thing 
to  a  larger  fish  at  three  times  the  distance  ?  If  you  have 
done  this,  and  have  seen  these  birds  take  their  fish  in 
from  one  to  three  feet  of  water,  you  may  have  wondered 
at  it  in  an  indolent  sort  of  way,  and  have  gone  on 
fishing. 

Stop  here  and  think!  Put  your  hand  a  foot  above 
the  water  and  try  to  grab  a  fish  that  is  just  below  the 
surface  and  you  will  fail.  Then  consider  what  the  king- 
fisher and  the  osprey  do  at  the  heights  at  which  they 
dive,  and  make  a  good  living  at  it,  and  you  will  marvel 
how  the  birds  do  it  with  repeated  success,  while  you 
can  never  catch  even  a  little  minnow  in  your  hand. 

The  osprey  can  sail  in  circles,  like  all  of  its  class,  but 
it  often  flies  in  a  direct  line,  with  head  bent  down  to 
scan  the  waters  below.  When  it  sees  a  fish  of  the  de- 
sired size  or  kind,  it  hovers,  as  the  kingfisher  does,  and 
then  like  an  arrow  it  dives,  and  rarely  misses.  Unlike 
the  kingfisher,  it  emerges  from  the  water  with  the  fish 
in  its  powerful  talons,  and  not  in  its  bill,  and  then  wings 
its  way  into  the  woods  to  feast,  or  to  feed  its  young. 


A  PLANT. 

A  water  plant  called  "bladderwort"  has  a  reputation 
for  capturing  small  fish  and  feeding  on  them,  as  the 
pitcher  plants  feed  on  insects  which  venture  into  their 
parlors  after  the  sweet  juices  held  there.  I  had  read 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  279 

something  of  this  plant  in  the  report  of  the  United 
States  Fish  Commission  for  1884-5,  but  did  not  know 
it.  Late  in  July,  1889,  I  was  ordered  by  Mr.  E.  G. 
Blackford,  President  of  the  New  York  Fish  Commis- 
sion, to  make  an  examination  of  the  two  principal  lakes 
of  Long  Island,  at  Ronkonkoma  and  Riverhead,  and 
Dr.  Bashford,  Dean  of  Columbia  University,  volun- 
teered to  assist,  I  to  work  up  fishes  and  crustaceans, 
and  he  to  do  the  same  for  plants  and  insects.  A  full 
report  of  our  work  may  be  found  in  the  report  of  the 
State  Commission  for  1889. 

When  Dr.  Dean  showed  me  the  plant  it  was  well 
known  by  sight,  but  the  idea  of  those  little  bladders, 
one-sixteenth  of  an  inch  long,  destroying  a  fish  seemed 
absurd.  Dr.  Dean  did'  not  have  to  go  far  to  study  the 
plant.  Three  varieties — the  Utricularia  vulgaris,  Pinior 
and  Pur  pur  ea — were  found  in  the  Long  Island  ponds 
in  quantity  and  under  natural  conditions.  The  plant 
is  found  in  rope-like  masses  growing  from  a  big  round 
bud.  It  is  more  or  less  floating,  and  dies  at  one  end 
as  it  grows  at  the  other.  In  the  winter  the  stem  dies 
up  to  the  terminal  bud.  It  blooms  in  June  in  Long 
Island  waters,  its  yellow  clusters  of  flowers  reaching 
up  above  the  surface  of  the  water.  The  leaves  are  deli- 
cate and  fringe  the  stem.  From  their  axils  arise  the 
bladders.  From  its  small  size  I  am  skeptical  about  its 
taking  any  fish. 

INSECTS  AND  THEIR  LARV^). 

While  furnishing  food  for  trout,  as  well  as  other 
fishes,  there  are  some  species  of  insects  which  turn  the 
tables  and  kill  the  trout.  A  flat  beetle  (Belostoma  gran- 
dis)  grows  to  a  length  of  two  inches,  and  will  attack  a 


280     Modern  Fishcultiire  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

yearling  trout.  It  has  swimming  legs  behind,  power- 
ful forelegs,  a  boat-shaped  body  and  a  sharp  probos- 
cis; the  larva  of  this  beetle  is  a  green  worm  the  size  of 
a  lead  pencil  and  nearly  three  inches  long.  Always  kill 
these  things.  The  margined  beetle  (Dytiscus)  has  hard 
shards  covering  the  wings,  strong  swimming  legs,  and 
a  pair  of  pincers  in  front;  length  of  body  one  and  one- 
half  inches;  female  with  fluted  shards  and  male  with 
smooth  shell-like  back,  around  which  runs  a  yellowish- 
white  stripe;  the  larva  is  the  ''water-scorpion/'  a  round- 
bodied  larva,  with  light  rings  at  each  abdominal  joint. 


PUPA  OF  DRAGON  FLY  (natural  size). 

The  larva  and  pupa  of  the  dragon-fly  are  very  destruct- 
ive to  small  fish.  Few  insect  pupa  take  food,  but  this 
animal  feeds  all  the  time;  it  has  a  pair  of  pincers  on  an 
extension  arrangement,  which  is  hinged  to  the  front 
part  of  its  head;  there  is  a  middle  joint  to  this  which 
lets  the  pincers  lie  in  front  when  in  repose,  but  allows 
them  to  be  thrust  out  nearly  three-fourths  of  an  inch 
when  it  seizes  a  fish.  I  once  put  six  young  gold-fish, 
three-quarters  of  an  inch  in  length,  in  a  bowl  with  a 
dragon-fly  larva,  and  it  killed  all  six  fish  inside  of  an 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  281 

hour.  This  dragon-fly  (Libellulida)  is  also  called  darn- 
ing needle,  mosquito-hawk  and  demoiselle.  Perhaps 
the  adult  insect  has  its  uses,  but  the  fishculturist  has 
no  use  for  it. 

The  great  larva  of  the  helgramite  fly  (Corydalus  cor- 
nutus)  may  kill  some  fish,  but  if  it  does  I  don't  know  it. 
This  larva  is  two  and  one-half  inches  long,  and  has  a 
powerful  pair  of  pincers;  it  lives  in  brooks,  under 
stones,  and  crawls  ashore  to  enter  the  pupa  stage  under 
logs.  The  great  insects  fly  by  night  and  are  seldom 
seen;  the  larva  is  a  famous  bait  for  black  bass,  and  is 
called  dobson,  crawler,  kill-devil,  and  about  twenty 


HELGRAMITE  LARVA,  "DOBSON." 

other  names.  The  female  fly  has  short  pincers,  like 
the  larva,  but  the  male  has  two  long  "horns,"  which 
cross  at  the  tips. 

The  little  "water  boatman,"  which  rows  himself 
along,  cannot  harm  fish  to  any  extent.  Trout  will  not 
eat  them,  nor  will  they  touch  "whirligigs,"  which  play 
in  schools  on  the  surface;  nor  will  they  taste  of  the 
water  cricket,  "skater,"  or  "skeeter,"  as  it  is  variously 
called — the  little,  dried-up  fellow  which  stands  on  the 
water  with  only  its  feet  touching  it.  These  water 
crickets  eat  small  insects,  but  seem  to  get  no  good 


282     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

from  them,  for  they  appear  to  be  as  dry  inside  as  they 
are  outside.  If  the  "whirligigs"  eat  anything  it  is  when 
I  am  not  looking,  for  they  are  so  occupied  with  their 
game  of  tag  through  a  crowd  of  their  fellows  that  they 


PUPA  OF  HELGRAMITE. 

cannot  spare  time  to  feed,  and  it  is  hard  to  tell  who 
is  "it." 

The  larva  of  the  stone-fly  is  the  caddis,  which  makes 
itself  a  case  of  leaves,  sticks,  sand,  or  other  material, 
and  is  harmless  in  all  stages;  therefore  it  has  no  busi- 


FEMALE  HELGRAMITE  FLY. 

ness  to  be  included  in  the  chapter  on  enemies  of  fish ; 
but  insects  will  not  get  another  inning  in  this  book, 
and  the  fishculturist  might  wonder  what  the  larva 
might  be.  Another  good  fish  food  that  cannot  harm  a 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  283 

fish  is  the  soft  larva  of  the  May-fly,  also  called  shad-fly, 
eel-fly,  and  by  other  names;  it  is  one  of  the  ephemera 
which  only  lives  for  a  day  or  two  in  the  perfect,  or 
imago,  state,  but  passes  several  years  in  the  larval  state 
in  the  water. 

MAMMALS. 

Years  ago  I  met  in  executive  session,  all  alone,  and 
passed  a  law  that  I  should  not  be  allowed  to  take  the 


MALE  HELGRAMITE  FLY. 


life  of  any  living  thing  unless  it  was  needed  by  me,  or 
because  it  worked  injury  to  my  interests.  Those  are 
the  only  circumstances  under  which  a  man  should  kill 
anything.  The  law  was  flexible  enough  to  allow  of 
shooting  a  few  game  birds  for  my  own  table  and  for 
taking  fish  also.  A  pair  of  ospreys,  sometimes  called 
"fish-hawks,"  nested  above  my  ponds  every  year,  and 
often  sailed  over  them  with  longing  eyes,  but  my  orders 
were  not  to  harm  them;  they  went  to  the  salt  water  a 
few  hundred  yards  below,  and  it  was  worth  the  price 
of  admission  to  see  them  plunge  from  a  height  of  a 
hundred  feet  and  get  a  fish,  One  young  one,  and  only 


284     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

one,  had  to  be  killed  because  he  would  not  be  "shooed" 
nor  stoned  away  from  the  trout  ponds. 

This  is  related  to  show  my  forbearance  toward  the 
muskrat  In  summer  musky  would  come  into  the  in- 
closure  and  swim  about  a  big  pool  below  the  ponds, 


STONE  FLY  (Phryganea),  LARVA  AND  CASES. 

raise  a  brood  and  enjoy  life.  When  he  burrowed  into 
the  dams  he  was  trapped,  and  I  often  said  to  him  before 
the  yelping  terriers  had  a  whack  at  him:  "Now, 
Musky,  if  you  and  your  tribe  will  only  dig  where  I 
want  digging  done  we  will  dwell  in  peace;  but  you 
persist  in  boring  into  my  dams,  and  we  are  no  longer 
friends."  But  the  terriers  had  no  argument  to  make. 

MUSKRATS. — For  years  I  had  suspected  the  musquash 
of  eating  fish,  but  had  no  evidence.  The  ground  for  sus- 
picion was  that  the  muskrat  ate  animal  food  in  the  shape 
of  fresh-water  mussels  (Unios),  as  was  shown  by  the 
piles  of  shells  which  he  took  the  trouble  to  carry  to  a  fav- 
orite place.  He  is  a  queer  fellow,  and  his  habits  are  worth 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  285 

studying;  he  leaves  his  "sign"  on  a  stone  or  log,  in  a 
conspicuous  place,  and  never  buries  it,  as  dogs  and 
cats  do.  I  gave  musky  the  benefit  of  the  doubt,  know- 
ing that  he  is  the  nearest  relative  of  the  beaver,  and 
the  name  of  "musk  beaver"  would  fit  him  better  than 
the  one  he  bears.  Having  dissected  hundreds  and 
found  no  remains  of  fish,  I  was  still  skeptical,  because 
of  the  eating  of  Unios. 

With  all  this  in  mind,  I  decided  to  find  out  what 
others  might  know  on  the  subject,  and  to  do  this  there 
is  no  way  in  which  one  can  reach  such  a  body  of  ob- 
servant field  naturalists  as  in  the  columns  of  "Forest 
and  Stream."  Therefore  I  wrote: 

"In  'Forest  and  Stream'  of  July  30,  1898,  I  said 
that  I  had  always  suspected  the  muskrat  of  eating  fish 
in  the  winter,  because  it  is  well  known  that  it  eats  ani- 
mal food  in  the  shape  of  Unios,  or  fresh-water  mussels, 
but  most  of  these  rodents  that  I  had  examined  were 
killed  in  summer,  when  they  were  mainly  feeding  on 
vegetation.  I  asked:  'Can  any  one  prove  that  the 
muskrat  eats  fish  in  winter  when  vegetation  is  scant?' 
To  this  question  there  came  but  one  reply,  but  it  was 
so  full  and  complete  that  I  publish  it  as  a  contribution 
to  the  life  history  of  the  muskrat.  No  doubt  thousands 
of  men  have  known  for  years  what  Mr.  Held  writes, 
but  as  I  did  not  know  it,  and  I  have  known  the  mus- 
quash as  boy  and  man  for  over  half  a  century,  and  as  a 
summer  burrower  in  my  trout  ponds  for  at  least  half 
that  time,  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  others  may  not  know 
about  the  fish-eating  habits  of  the  muskrat. 

"Here  is  just  the  kind  of  letter  that  I  love  to  receive. 
It  is  from  Mr.  William  C.  Held,  Saginaw,  Mich.,  and 
says : 

"  'You  ask  if  any  one  can  prove  that  the  muskrat 


286     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

eats  fish  in  winter.  All  our  net  fishermen  can  prove 
that  they  eat  fish,  as  they  are  the  most  destructive  thing 
they  have  to  deal  with  during  the  fall  and  winter 
months.  They  chew  into  the  nets  and  then  chew  out 
again,  and  in  this  way  they  let  out  many  fish  before  the 
holes  are  located  and  repaired.  As  soon  as  the  fisher- 
men have  their  nets  set  in  the  fall,  they  commence  trap- 
ping around  them,  and  in  this  way  they  catch  most  of 
the  rats;  but  there  are  always  a  few  that  remain  un- 
caught,  which  cause  trouble  all  winter. 

"  'In  the  winter  one  can  see  places  on  the  ice  where 
the  muskrats  have  carried  fish  and  eaten  them  night 
after  night.  Last  spring  I  saw  a  fish-box  into  which  a 
muskrat  had  gnawed  a  hole  for  the  purpose  of  getting 
at  the  fish.'  " 

THE  MINK  varies  his  diet  of  poultry  and  game  with 
fish.  Once  I  dug  out  a  mink's  nest,  and  found  a  great 
lot  of  feathers,  bones  of  birds  and  of  fish,  all  around  the 
helpless  young.  The  mother  escaped  by  another  hole, 
and  as  for  the  old  male  mink,  he  would  only  take  interest 
enough  in  the  family  to  kill  the  young ;  and  that  is  one 
good  trait  in  the  mink,  as  cruel  and  bloodthirsty  an  ani- 
mal as  walks  this  planet — one  who  kills  for  the  love  of 
killing,  and  is  almost  as  bad  as  the  human  game  hog 
who  kills  for  count  and  brag. 

OTTERS  are  fish-eaters,  and  eat  little  else,  but  the 
American  fishculturist  has  no  fear  of  them,  for  they  are 
entirely  exterminated  in  parts  that  are  only  sparsely 
settled;  yet  in  Germany  they  are  a. pest  to  the  fishcul- 
turist, and  in  that  densely-populated  land,  yclept  "Mer- 
rie  England,"  packs  of  other  hounds  are  still  kept  up. 

THE  BEAR  visits  the  streams  where  suckers  run  up 
to  spawn  in  spring,  and  he  impales  them  on  his  claws, 
or  scoops  them  on  land,  and  possibly  may  agree  with  a 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  287 

noted  thief  and  confidence-man  of  New  York,  who 
said :  "A  sucker  is  born  every  minute/' 

DOMESTIC  CATS  love  fish,  not  in  a  platonic  sense,  but 
as  epicures;  and  as  much  as  they  dislike  to  be  wet,  I 
have  known  a  cat  to  plunge  into  a  stream  for  fish.  We 
all  know  that  the  house  cat  will  wet  a  paw  in  the  glass 
globe  for  a  goldfish  as  readily  as  she  will  go  for  the 
canary  bird  when  no  one  is  watching,  but  few  know 
that  tabby  will  dive  for  fish.  While  fishing  for  trout 
between  the  mill  ponds  at  Cold  T:  ring  Harbor,  Long 
Island,  and  leisurely  casting  in  a  pool,  a  splash  drew 
attention  to  a  large  cat  just  emerging  from  the  water 
with  a  handsome  trout.  She  was  wet  all  over,  and  must 
have  struck  her  game  where  the  water  covered  her  back. 
I  had  neither  gun  nor  pistol,  and  pussy  lived  to  report. 
When  I  have  a  gun  I  make  it  a  point  to  kill  every  cat 
that  I  find  in  the  woods.  My  love  of  robins  and  other 
birds  has  brought  me  to  hate  this  domestic  tiger,  which 
kills  them.  A  maiden  lady  in  the  village  usually  had 
from  twenty  to  thirty  cats,  and  although  she  fed  them 
well  there  was  no  brook  trout  on  their  menu.  Near  her 
father's  stables  there  was  a  private  trout  stream,  and 
the  owner  gave  me  the  privilege  of  taking  eggs  for  the 
State.  My  men  reported  that  every  morning  there  were 
remains  of  trout  on  the  bank,  where  cats  had  eaten  them. 
T  rigged  a  dozen  steel  traps  in  places  where  cat  tracks 
hinted  that  they  would  do  the  most  good,  and  said 
nothing  to  my  men,  for  they  had  relatives  near.  Know- 
ing the  racket  a  cat  in  a  trap  would  make,  I  was  there 
before  daylight  in  order  that  there  should  be  no  dis- 
turbance of  my  neighbor's  sleep.  Three  cats  were  my 
only  reward,  and  as  that  didn't  pay  the  scheme  was 
dropped. 

THE  RACCOON. — This  very  scientific  fisher  has  been 


288     Modem  Fishculture  In  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

left  for  the  last,  but  it  is  not  least.  The  Germans  call 
this  animal  the  "wash  bear,"  from  its  habit  of  washing 
things  before  it  eats  them.  As  the  coon  is  omnivorous 
it  may  be  questioned  if  it  washes  birds ;  and  I  know 
that  it  does  not  wash  green  corn,  the  "roastin'  ear"  of 
the  South.  The  old  darkey  song  says  : 

"Ole  Mistah  Coon's  a  mighty  man, 

He  carry  a  bushy  tail; 
He  steal  ole  massa's  cawn  at  night, 

An'  he  husks  it  awn  de  rail. 

"De  squirrel  hab  a  bushy  tail, 

An'  stumpy  grows  de  hair; 
De  ole  coon's  tail  am  ringed  all  'roun', 

An'  de  possum's  tail  am  bare." 

Here  is  a  condensed  natural  history,  and  such  simple 
songs  made  negro  minstrelsy  popular  forty  years  ago, 
but  what  they  sing  to-day  is  characterless. 

Next  to  the  fox,  if  not  before  it,  the  coon  ranks  in 
cuteness.  I  saw  one  wade  in  on  a  riffle  and  go  up 
stream,  turning  a  stone  with  one  forepaw  and  grab- 
bing any  fish  or  crayfish  which  might  dart  out  with  the 
other.  It  was  in  the  summer,  when  the  streams  were 
low  in  Louisiana,  and  I  had  been  fishing,  but  at  that 
time  was  sitting  on  a  log  taking  a  bite  at  noon.  A 
bunch  willow  concealed  all  but  my  head,  and  when  the 
coon  came  in  sight  I  suspended  mastication  and  tried 
to  suppress  breathing,  for  a  fellow  may  be  out  for 
years  and  not  get  a  chance  to  see  a  wild  animal  search 
for  its  food  as  if  it  was  unobserved.  There  was  no 
desire  to  kill  the  coon,  for  it  was  midsummer,  and 
neither  flesh  nor  skin  were  good  ;  and  then  I'm  that  sort 
of  fellow  that,  when  not  pressed  for  meat,  would  spend 
half  a  day  to  see  a  chipmunk  dig  its  hole,  and  think  the 
time  well  spent. 


Parasites,  Diseases  and  Enemies.  289 

The  coon  proceeded  cautiously,  with  one  paw  ready 
to  grab  before  a  stone  was  disturbed;  then  the  stone 
was  quickly  upset  and  a  grab  made,  and  a  crayfish  was 
captured ;  just  how  I  could  not  see,  but  in  a  way  that 
avoided  the  two  great  pinching  claws,  which  were  then 
broken  off,  and  the  crustacean  scrubbed  and  eaten,  as 
some  darkies  eat  peanuts,  shells  and  all,  This  ac- 
counted for  the  number  of  these  claws  seen  on  the 
riffles.  I  wonder  if  all  coons  break  off  the  claws  from 
crayfishei)  before  they  wash  and  eat  then. 

Coons  also  kill  and  eat  the  small  pond  turtles,  thl 
painted  and  Spotted  ones  of  the  northeastern  United 
State^  and  perhaps  the  larger  "sliders"  of  the  South, 
I  have  never  seen  them  eat  a  turtle,  but  have  §een  the 
empty  shells  picked  quite  clean  aldng  the  shore,  and 
usually  surrounded  by  coon  tracks,  forming  gdod  cir- 
cumstantial evidence. 

While  fishing  in  Kansas  a  coon  came  out  of  the 
woods  and  washed  a  frog  within  thirty  feet  of  me,  and 
scrubbed  it  well,  and  went  back  into  the  brush. 


"Oh,  Mistah  Coon's  a  cunnin'  t'ing, 

He  ramble  in  de  dark; 
An'  de  only  t'ing  dat  'sturbs  his  mind 

Is  to  hear  ole  Ringo  bark." 


SECTION    VII. 


SALT-WATER  FISH. 

Many  salt-water  fishes  have  been  successfully 
hatched,  but  never  for  rearing  in  ponds.  The  work 
has  been  confined  to  the  United  States  Fish  Commis- 
sion, and  the  States  of  New  York  and  Massachusetts. 
The  first  work  of  the  kind  in  America,  as  far  as  I  know, 
was  done  by  me  at  Noank,  Conn.,  in  June,  1874,  when 
Prof.  Baird  wished  to  try  and  take  the  eggs  of  some 
sea-bass  (Centropristes  striatus),  which  were  confined 
in  fish  cars.  This  was  done  with  bleeding  hands  before 
I  learned  just  how  sharp  these  fin-rays  were.  I  used 
floating  boxes,  and  took  many  eggs,  which  were  quite 
small,  being  twenty-five  to  the  linear  inch.  These  eggs 
were  watched  under  the  microscope  several  times  a 
day,  for  the  scientists  of  the  United  States  Fish  Com- 
mission were  there,  and  the  development  recorded. 
Things  went  well  until  the  fourth  day,  when  a  storm 
upset  the  boxes  as  the  eggs  were  about  to  hatch.  (See 
Report  U.  S.  F.  C,  1874.) 

Since  that  the  experts  have  hatched  the  scup,  or 
porgy ;  the  tautog,  or  blackfish ;  the  flounder,  sea  her- 
ring, sheepshead;  weakfish,  or  squeteague;  cod,  had- 
dock, Spanish  mackerel,  and  other  salt-water  species. 

290 


292     Modem  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

CODFISH, 

The  cod  family  is  the  most  important  of  all  the  fishes, 
containing  a  large  number  of  species  of  considerable 
size,  distributed  throughout  all  the  parts  of  the  north- 
ern hemisphere  in  great  numbers,  The  cod  is  easily 
captured  and  readily  preserved.  It  feeds  more  men 
than  any  other  fish.  Norway  lives  from  it,  and  exports 
60  per  cent,  of  the  catch. 

It  was  the  fisheries  and  not  the  sterile  rocks  of  Mas- 
sachusetts which  tempted  our  ancestors  to  settle  on 
that  rock-bound  and  inhospitable  coast,  and  their  de- 
scendants remembered  this  when  they  put  the  great 
gilt  codfish  in  the  State  Capitol,  where  it  hangs  to-day, 
to  remind  the  law-makers  that  once  the  "Codfish  Aris- 
tocracy" was  the  real  thing,  for  the  very  existence  of 
our  "first  families"  in  the  early  emigration  days  de- 
pended upon  the  humble  codfish. 

The  nutritious  cod  is  found  in  the  North  Atlantic, 
North  Pacific  and  Polar  oceans  to  far  beyond  the  Arc- 
tic Circle.  In  the  West  Atlantic  it  occurs  in  winter  in 
considerable  numbers  as  far  south  as  the  mouth  of 
Chesapeake  Bay,  latitude  37  degrees,  and  stragglers 
have  been  observed  off  Cape  Charles;  Cape  Hatteras 
may  be  considered  its  southern  limit. 

Its  distribution  on  the  Pacific  coast  is  not  so  well 
known,  although  it  appears  to  occur  on  all  the  off-shore 
banks  of  that  coast  and  to  the  coasts  north  of  the  Straits 
of  Fuca. 

There  is  a  cod  bank  outside  of  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia  River,  but  it  is  not  much  fished,  and  on  the 


Salt-Water  Fish. 


Pacific  coast,  the  cod  fisheries  of  Alaska  are  of  the 
greatest  importance;  but  the  Pacific  fisheries  are  in- 
creasing, 

The  cod  spawns  all  winter,  from  November  to  the 
last  of  March,  Its  eggs  are  free,  and  will  float  in  water 
of  a  density  of  1.026  for  a  week  or  more,  when  they 
settle  down  a  little.  At  a  temperature  of  45  to  38 
degrees  they  will  hatch  in  from  two  to  three  weeks, 
and  absorb  the  sac  in  a  little  less  than  half  that  time, 
The  Government  hatcheries  at  Gloucester,  since  1878, 
Wood's  Hole  and  Ten-pound  Island,  Mass,,  turn  out 
great  numbers,  but  we  never  made  much  of  a  success 
of  it  on  Long  Island,  mainly  because  the  water  was 
seldom  denser  in  the  inner  harbor  than  1.018,  and  of 
the  difficulty  of  getting  and  transporting  the  eggs. 

Many  a  cold  morning  before  sunrise  have  I  and  my 
men  been  on  the  fish  cars  at  Fulton  Market  taking  cod 
eggs  with  fingers  which  had  no  feeling  in  them.  Then 
we  would  take  the  eggs  in  jars  of  water  and  on  flannel 
trays  to  be  taken  to  the  hatchery.  I  once  took  3,000,000 
eggs  from  a  twenty-five-pound  cod,  and  left  some 
which  were  not  matured.  A  cod  is  sexually  mature  at 
four  years  old.  When  spawning  at  sea  the  sexes  do 
not  seem  to  come  close  together,  as  is  the  case  with 
most  of  the  fishes  with  whose  spawning  habits  I  am 
familiar.  If  the  egg  meets  the  milt  of  the  male  and 
absorbs  a  spermatozoon,  while  absorbing  water,  the  egg 
is  fertilized.  But  nature,  which  gives  the  trout  a  few 
hundred  eggs,  provides  the  cod  with  millions,  to  cover 
their  loss  by  not  being  fertilized,  and  many  are  thrown 
on  shore. 

Special  apparatus  was  needed  for  floating  eggs,  and 
the  late  Capt.  Chester  devised  a  "tidal  hatcher"  that 
let  the  water  in  at  the  bottom  and  out  by  a  siphon, 


294     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

which  caused  the  water  to  rise  and  fall  in  the  jars. 
These  jars  had  holes  in  their  bottoms,  which  were 
corked,  and  the  jars  filled  with  eggs  and  water;  a  bit 
of  cheesecloth  was  fastened  over  the  top,  the  jars  re- 
versed in  the  box,  on  strips,  and  the  cork  removed, 
The  water  would  then  rise  until  the  siphon  began  to 
work,  and  then  it  would  fall  until  the  siphon  stopped, 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

THE  TOMCOD. 

This  fish  (Micro gadus  tomcod)  is  a  miniature  cod- 
fish, to  the  casual  observer ;  rigged  out  with  three  dorsal 
fins  and  two  anal  fins  in  true  cod  style.  It  ranges  from 
Labrador  to  Virginia,  coming  into  harbors  to  spawn  in 
brackish  water.  In  some  parts  it  is  called  "frostfish," 
but  there  is  another  fish  by  that  name,  and  "tomcod"  is 
more  generally  used.  In  New  York  harbors  it  spawns 
along  the  docks  and  in  the  weeds  in  December;  eggs 
free  and  heavy,  about  fifteen  to  the  inch.  They  hatch 
in  thirty  to  forty  days,  and  the  young  take  food  at  four 
to  six  days,  according  to  temperature.  The  tomcod 
grows  to  two  pounds  weight,  but  the  average  is  between 
one-quarter  and  one-half  pound.  I  began  hatching  this 
fish  in  1884,  with  some  sneering  from  the  inland  Com- 
missioners, but  when  those  who  live  near  the  salt  water 
found  it  out  the  applications  for  them  came  in  fast.  The 
fish  increased  in  all  the  harbors.  In  my  report  to  the 
New  York  Commission  for  1893,  page  36,  I  say :  "Be- 
tween November  27  and  January  15  we  had  a  good  run, 


Salt-Water  Fish. 


29$ 


and  turned  out  nearly  16,000,000  fry,  which  kept  our 
salt-water  pump  going  day  and  night.  This  fish  is  very 
prolific,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  from  thirty-two 
females  we  got  an  average  of  30,000  eggs  each,  and  we 


CHESTER'S  TIDAL  HATCHER. 

have  taken  as  high  as  75,000  eggs  from  one  female. 
Larger  tomcods  and  more  of  them  were  never  seen  in 
this  harbor  before." 

If  the  eggs  are  placed  in  fresh  water  from  the  start 


296     Modern  Fishcutture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

they  will  hatch,  and  I'have  reared  them  in  fresh  water; 
but  if  the  salt  water  failed  and  we  changed  to  fresh 
after  several  days,  the  fish  often  hatched,  but  died,  This 
would  be  a  good  fish  for  large  lakes,  because  it  has  soft 
fins,  and  is  therefore  better  food  for  big  trout  than  any 
sharp-finned  fishes, 


CHAPTER  XXXIX, 
LOBSTERS  (Homarus). 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  winter  of  1885-86  the  late 
Prof.  Baird  caused  experiments  to  be  made  at  Wood's 
Hole,  Mass.,  with  lobster  eggs.  At  that  time  it  was  the 
belief  that  lobsters  spawned  all  the  year  round,  because 
eggs  were  found  on  some  females  at  all  seasons.  We 
now  know  that  an  individual  spawns  but  once  in  two 
years.  She  can  only  grow  when  she  sheds  her  shell, 
which  she  does  not  do  while  eggs  are  attached  to  her 
abdomen.  This  is  the  routine :  Say  she  has  shed  and 
spawned  in  the  late  summer  of  1890;  the  eggs  hatch  in 
the  summer  of  '91,  after  which  she  makes  growth  and 
moults,  not  spawning  again  until  the  next  summer. 

LOBSTERS  ARE  BIENNIAL  SPAWNERS. 

In  the  " Scientific  American  Supplement,"  No.  945, 
February  10,  1894,  was  published  an  article  of  mine, 
entitled,  "What  We  Know  of  the  Lobster,"  which  that 
paper  had  held  unpublished  since  September,  1892,  six- 
teen months,  as  is  shown  by  the  letter  of  Prof.  Samuel 
Carman,  given  below.  In  the  meantime  Dr.  Francis  H, 


Salt-Water  Fish.  297 

Herrick  announced  his  discovery  that  the  lobster  was 
a  biennial  spawner  in  his  extensive  and  most  complete 
life-history  of  the  lobster  which  has  ever  been  pub- 
lished ;  thus  anticipating  Prof.  Carman  and  myself,  who 
were  studying  on  the  same  lines.  In  the  Report  of  the 


TOM  COD. 

New  York  Fish  Commission  (1892),  pages  50-57,  I 
refer  to  this,  and  give  Prof.  Carman's  report  on  the 
lobster  to  the  Massachusetts  Fish  Commission  (Decem- 
ber, 1891).  The  United  States  Fish  Commission  Bul- 
letin for  1893,  pages  281-286,  printed  my  article  from 
the  "Scientific  American  Supplement"  in  full.  I  can 
only  quote  a  few  extracts  : 

''The  female  spawns  but  once  in  two  years.  Notes 
made  on  the  eggs  of  lobsters  in  the  New  York  Aqua- 
rium in  1876-78  show  that  they  hatched  before  July,  or 
when  the  water  reached  a  temperature  of  about  60  de- 
grees Fahr.  In  1891  I  began  the  hatching  of  lobsters 
for  the  New  York  State  Fishery  Commission,  and 
found  that  eggs  taken  from  lobsters  from  the  middle  to 
the  last  of  July  did  not  hatch  that  year.  Then  it  seemed 
as  if  the  lobster  might  be  a  biennial  spawner,  but  I  did 
not  dare  to  say  so.  A  report  of  my  observations  sent  to 
Prof,  Samuel  Carman,  of  the  Museum  of  Comparative 


298     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water, 

Zoology,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  brought  a  letter  dated 
August  30,  1892,  complimenting  my  studies  on  the  life- 
history  of  the  lobster  and  inclosing  a  report  to  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Fish  Commission,  dated  December  17,  1891, 
in  which  he  shows  that  his  investigations  proved  that 
the  lobster  spawned  but  once  in  two  years.  Therefore, 
I  have  solid  backing  in  making  the  statement  that  heads 
this  paragraph. 

"Since  this  I  have  taken,  for  the  New  York  Fishery 
Commission,  a  large  number  of  lobster  eggs,  and  have 
turned  out  this  year  from  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  Long 
Island,  177,000  young  lobsters  into  the  waters  of  Long 
Island  Sound.  These  were  from  eggs  which  otherwise 
would  have  been  sent  to  market  with  the  parent  and 
have  been  boiled  and  thrown  away  with  the  shells,  and 
were  therefore  just  so  many  saved  from  destruction 
and  given  a  chance  to  struggle  for  life.  There  is  no 
law  in  the  State  of  New  York  relating  to  "berried"  lob- 
sters. The  eggs  number  fifteen  to  the  linear  inch,  and 
measure  6,090  to  the  fluid  ounce,  are  attached  not  only 
to  the  swimmerets,  but  also  to  each  other  by  threads, 
and  are  aerated  by  an  almost  constant  motion  of  the 
appendages,  and  in  confinement  many  eggs  are  loos- 
ened and  fall  off,  perhaps  from  the  habit  that  the  parent 
has  of  poking  among  them  with  her  legs.  *  *  * 

"The  young  do  not  hatch  until  the  water  reaches  a 
temperature  of  about  60  degrees  Fahr.,  which  in  Long 
Island  Sound  might  occur  after  the  latter  part  of  May, 
and  in  that  region  the  hatching  season  is  over  by  the 
middle  of  July,  and  as  the  mother  has  been  feeding 
while  carrying  her  eggs,  she  can  then  shed  her  shell 
and  begin  to  develop  the  so-called  "coral"  that  epicures 
prize,  which  will  form  the  eggs  to  -be  laid  the  second 
year,  The  fact  that  female  lobsters  bearing  eggs  out- 


Salt-Water  Fish.  299 

side,  while  others  have  the  coral  inside,  are  taken  in 
winter,  supports  the  theory  of  biennial  spawning. 
August  16,  1893,  I  took  a  lobster  from  a  car,  which  the 
owner  told  me  had  spawned  two  days  before.  The 
microscope  could  detect  nothing  in  the  eggs,  because 
the  yolk  filled  them  entirely.  Four  days  later  the  yolk 
had  shrunken  and  the  "mulberry"  stage  could  be  seen'  in 
the  clear  space,  and  by  the  25th  the  eye  was  visible. 
The  eggs  are  dark  when  first  laid,  and  grow  lighter  in 
color  as  they  develop.  From  this  until  October  no 
change  was  seen." 

The  pump  broke  and  they  died. 

There  is  no  food  for  a  larval  lobster  known  to  me 
that  is  as  acceptable  as  another  larval  lobster  that  has 
just  molted.  I  have  tried  to  bribe  them  by  hanging 
flesh  of  eel,  clam,  beef,  lobster  (adult),  blue  crab,  and 
fiddler  crab,  but  without  avail ;  their  love  for  their  fel- 
lows which  prompted  them  to  take  their  brethren  in  out 
of  the  wet,  lest  they  might  be  devoured  by  small  fishes, 
baffled  my  efforts,  and  there  was  no  resource  but  to 
plant  the  fry  as  soon  as  hatched.  If  each  youngster 
could  be  placed  in  a  tank,  or  even  a  small  compartment, 
by  itself,  no  doubt  it  would  accept  any,  or  all,  of  the 
foods  named,  but  at  present  we  are  not  prepared  to  feed 
a  million  or  more  individual  lobsters  in  separate  stalls 
for  months  before  turning  them  out  to  shift  for  them- 
selves. They  cannot  be  reclaimed  from  cannibalism  by 
any  known  means.  They  are  fighters  by  nature,  and 
when  a  lobsterman  has  a  lot  of  adults  in  a  floating  car 
and  a  storm  comes  up  each  lobster  blames  his  neighbor 
for  any  collision  that  may  ensue,  and  they  engage  in  a 
general  fight,  which  is  not  only  disastrous  to  them- 
selves, but  to  the  lobsterman,  for  lobsters  are  not  mar- 
ketable in  fragments. 


300     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

Just  how  the  eggs  are  impregnated  is  not  known.  It 
is  said  that  the  milt  is  placed  near  the  oviduct  some  time 
before  the  extrusion  of  the  eggs,  and  that  they  are  fer- 
tilized by  passing  over  it.  Of  this  I  know  nothing,  and 
merely  insert  this  paragraph  to  show  that  this  question 
was  not  overlooked.  The  sexes  of  lobsters  can  easily 
be  distinguished  without  the  presence  of  eggs.  When 
the  pairing  takes  place  and  how  it  is  performed  no  man 
knows.  A  study  of  the  reproductive  organs  has  devel- 
oped a  theory,  and  there  we  stop. 

The  increase  of  population  has  naturally  increased 
the  consumption  of  lobsters,  and  the  great  decrease  in 
the  size  of  this  crustacean  is  an  evidence  that  they  are 
slow  of  growth,  and  the  marketable  lobster  of  to-day, 
weighing  from  one  to  two  pounds,  may  be  from  four 
to  six  years  old,  possibly  more.  In  all  these  estimates 
of  weights  a  fairly  plump,  well-fed  lobster  is  meant, 
and  not  one  that  would  be  rejected  by  the  housewife  as 
not  worth  picking  the  meat  from,  for  she  has  learned 
to  weigh  them  in  her  hand,  and  of  several  of  the  same 
size,  to  choose  the  heaviest. 

They  are  hatched  in  jars,  and  swim  at  once.  They 
are  in  a  larval  state  at  first,  and  moult  three  times  be- 
fore they  are  perfect  and  get  the  big  claws.  It  is  when 
it  moults,  and  is  soft,  that  his  fellows  devour  him.  In 
a  natural  state  the  youthful  Homarus  would  seek  shel- 
ter for  this  operation,  hence  we  must  plant  them  at  once, 
or  we  might  have  only  one  fat  fellow  left,  who,  like 
Gilbert's  mariner,  could  say : 


"O,  I  am  the  cook  and  the  captain  bold, 
And  the  mate  of  the  Nancy  brig; 

The  bo'sun  tight, 

And  the  midshipmite, 

And  the  crew  of  the  captain's  gig." 


SECTION  VIII. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 

CHAPTER  XL. 

FROG  CULTURE. 

About  once  a  year  the  story  of  a  mythical  frog  farm, 
where  much  wealth  is  harvested  every  season,  goes  the 
rounds  of  the  newspapers.  Seth  Green  started  it  in  an 
article  on  raising  frogs,  published  in  one  of  the  Re- 
ports of  the  New  York  State  Fish  Commission,  stating 
how  easily  the  spawn  could  be  gathered  and  hatched; 
but  he  went  no  further ;  he  was  widely  quoted  and  that 
was  the  end  of  it,  if  not  the  object  of  his  paper.  He 
was  right.  They  can  be  hatched  in  any  quantity  in 
pools  of  still  water  at  summer  temperatures,  and  the 
tadpoles  can  be  fed  and  grown  if  protected  until  the 
transformation  into  a  frog  comes,  and  then  they  leave 
the  water  and  catch  insects ;  it  is  impossible  then  to 
feed  them  and  they  die.  I  speak  from  experience,  hav- 
ing been  a  student  of  the  frog  during  a  long  career  of 
fishctilture,  covering  thirty  years.  In  the  early  days  I 
read  of  a  successful  frog  farm  near  Nutley,  N.  J.,  and 
went  there,  but  no  one  knew  of  it,  nor  could  I  find  the 
man,  A  similar  experience  in  Indiana  made  me  skep- 

301 


302      Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

tical,  but  it  was  only  personal  study  and  experience  that 
made  me  an  unbeliever. 

I  can  feed  a  single  frog  by  dangling  a  bit  of  meat 
before  its  nose;  tbe  meat  stirs  and  the  frog  seizes  it, 
but  it  will  not  pick  up  that  meat  from  the  ground  if 
thrown  there.  Suppose  you  have  a  million  frogs. 
Imagine  yourself  feeding  them  by  dangling  meat  be- 
fore each  individual  nose ! 

Tadpoles  are  hatched  by  the  thousand  for  every  frog 
that  becomes  .adult.  Fish,  birds  and  frogs  feed  on 
them  in  the  larva  or  tadpole  state,  and  when  they 
emerge  from  that  they  encounter  the  same  enemies, 
with  snakes  added. 

The  frog  is  a  solitary  animal,  never  in  the  company 
of  another  except  in  the  spring  of  the  year,  when  mat- 
ing, or  in  the  winter,  when  they  congregate  in  spring 
holes,  or  other  places.  They  cannot  be  kept  in  num- 
bers, like  fishes,  because  they  would  starve  if  obliged 
to  compete  for  food  with  their  fellows.  The  frog  farm 
has  not  yet  been  established  where  they  can  be  hatched 
and  fed  artificially  until  ready  for  market,  and  it  never 
will  be. 

When  you  hear  of  any  person  rearing  frogs  on  arti- 
ficial food  it  is  simply  a  lie.  The  frog  is  being  killed 
out  where  it  is  hunted,  and  the  supplies  come  from  re- 
mote districts,  where  the  rural  population  does  not  eat 
theni,  or  where  there  is  no  population. 

According  to  inquiries  of  the  United  States.  Fish 
Commission  the  annual  catch  in  the  United  States  is 
but  little  less  than  1,000,000,  with  a  grocs  value  to  the 
hunters  of  about  $50,000,  or  5  cents  each.  The  con- 
sumer pays  three  times  that  price,  which  varies,  accord- 
ing to  the  market.  Dressed  legs  yield  the  hunters 
from  10  to  50  cents  per  pound.  The  bullfrog  is  the 


Miscellaneous.  303 

largest  and  best  species ;  the  little  spring  and  meadow 
frogs  only  grow  to  3  and  4  inches,  length  of  body, 
while  the  bullfrog  reaches  nine.  The  little  "pickerel 
frog"  (Rana  palustris)  with  bright  yellow  on  thighs 
and  legs,  has  a  disagreeable  odor  and  is  rarely  eaten ; 
all  the  others  are  good.  We  have  four  other  species, 
all  small  except  the  bullfrog,  besides  the  arboreal  frogs, 
which  are  usually  called  "tree  toads." 


A   GREAT    TRANSFORMATION. 

The  change  from  a  tadpole  to  a  perfect  frog  is  as 
wonderful  as  the  change  from  a  hairy,  crawling  cater- 
piller  into  a  beautiful  butterfly ;  but  somehow  this  won- 
derful transformation  into  a  frog,  while  well  known 
to  a  few,  has  not  seemed  to  impress  the  general  mind, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  butterfly.  What  happens  is  this : 
The  frog  lays  its  eggs,  which  are  fertilized  after  being 
laid,  as  in  the  case  of  most  fishes ;  the  eggs  are  globu- 
lar, jelly-like  masses,  which  swell  greatly  after  extru- 
sion. In  a  few  days  the  embryo  is  seen  moving  about, 
and  it  emerges  from  the  mass  without  absorbing  it, 
a  most  unusual  waste  in  animal  life.  The  young  is 
coiled  in  the  egg,  with  a  tail,  much  like  an  embryo 
fish,  but  having  its  gills  outside,  and  so  hatches  in  an 
almost  shapeless  form.  Gradually  it  takes  on  the  form 
of  the  large  proteus  (Necturus),  called  "lizard"  on  the 
Great  Lakes,  which  retains  its  outside  gills  when  adult. 
Then  these  outside  gills  absorb  or  develop  inwardly, 
and  the  future  frog  is  in  all  respects  a  fish.  It  has  a 
long  embryonic  fin  that  is  eel-like,  and  begins  back 
of  the  head  and  goes  around  the  slim  tail  to  the  vent. 
Its  eve  is  well  developed,  and  the  "herring  bone"  mus- 


304     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

cles  in  its  tail  can  be  plainly  seen.  It  has  a  circular 
mouth,  which  can  feed  on  either  animal  or  vegetable 
matter.  Its  abdomen  is  large,  and  fitted  for  digesting 
vegetables.  It  rivals  the  ant  in  cleaning  the  flesh  from 
delicate  skeletons  for  the  zoologist. 

In  thio  state  it  passes  its  first  summer  and  goes  into 
the  mud  in  winter,  and  comes  out  hungry  in  early 
spring.  Like  all  larvae,  it  is  a  greedy  feeder,  and  soon 
begins  to  show  its  growth  and  development  by  budding 
a  pair  of  hindlegs,  which  are  completed  about  the  time 
the  forelegs  begin  to  show  and  the  ears  to  develop.* 
When  these  legs  are  fully  developed  the  tail  begins  to 
absorb,  and  the  frog  has  already  begun  to  take  oxygen 
from  the  air  occasionally;  it  is  changing  from  a  gill- 
breathing  fish  to  a  lung-breathing  animal.  Think  what 
this  means :  Lungs  are  growing  and  gills  are  being 
absorbed,  yet  in  the  intermediate  state  the  animal  can 
breathe  with  both  organs.  The  absorption  of  the  tail 
goes  to  nourish  some  part  of  the  body,  but  the  adoles- 
cent bullfrog  is  now  smaller  than  the  tadpole  from 
which  it  changed. 

Not  only  this,  but  its  long,  convoluted  intestine,  fit- 
ted to  digest  vegetation,  has  somehow  changed  to  a 
shorter  one,  for  the  vegetarian  requires  a  complex 
apparatus  to  digest  its  food,  while  the  similar  organs  in 
the  carnivora  are  simple,  flesh  being  easier  of  digestion 
than  vegetables. 

MARKETING  THE  FROG. 

Tons  of  frogs  now  come  to  New  York  markets  each 
year.  They  are  from  Canada,  Michigan  and  from  the 

*  The  ears  of  a  frog  are  those  large  disks  back  of  the  eye ; 
they  are  external  ear-drums  without  a  meatus. 


Miscellaneous,  305 

West  and  South,  where  the  people  have  not  yet  learned 
to  eat  them ;  for  there  are  practically  none  to  be  found 
near  my  boyhood  frogging  grounds,  where  I  could 
easily  get  a  hundred  or  more  in  a  day.  They  do  not 
get  a  chance  to  grow,  for  it  is  my  belief  that  "an  old 
rouser"  of  a  bullfrog,  with  a  body  say  8  inches  long, 
is  at  least  a  dozen  years  old.  I  can't  prove  this  from 
experiment,  but  believe  it  from  the  slow  growth  that 
several  frogs  of  my  acquaintance  have  made.  One 
that  had  lost  part  of  one  hind  foot  I  knew  for  three 
years ;  it  was  about  5  inches  long  when  I  first  caught  it, 
and  had  not  grown  over  an  inch  in  three  years,  al- 
though in  a  pool  where  food  was  plenty.  As  about 
9  inches  is  the  limit,  this  frog  had  not  ceased  to  grow. 

In  the  report  of  the  United  States  Fish  Commission- 
er for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1896,  page  497,  Dr. 
Hugh  M.  Smith  gave  the  products  of  the  fisheries  for 
1894,  and  we  find  the  following  credited  to  the  frog 
catch,  which,  as  before  said,  is  mainly  sent  to  New 
York  and  other  large  cities :  Arkansas  58,900  Ibs., 
value  $4,162;  Indiana  24,000  Ibs.,  $824;  Missouri  154,- 
818  Ibs.,  $9,676;  New  York  61,400  Ibs.,  $5,126;  Ohio 
14,040  Ibs.,  $2,340;  Vermont  5,500  Ibs.,  $825.  Total, 
318,658  Ibs.,  valued  at  $22,953.  No  other  States  are 
quoted. 

Few  people  outside  of  the  cities  eat  them.  When  the 
rural  population  take  to  eating  frogs  there  will  be  none 
for  the  great  markets.  I  have  seen  whole  frogs  skinned 
in  Fulton  Market,  but  usually  only  the  hind  legs  are 
used;  for,  except  in  the  case  of  monster  specimens, 
there  is  little  meat  on  other  parts. 

The  eggs  are  extruded  by  the  female,  assisted  by 
pressure  of  the  forelegs  of  the  male,  who  fertilizes  them 
as  they  pass  out. 


306     Modern  Fishcidture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

TERRAPINS. 

There  are  many  species  of  terrapins,  speaking  by  the 
card,  but  to  the  market-man  and  epicure  there  is  but 
one  and  this  is  the  "diamond  back,"  so  called  because 
of  the  markings  on  its  upper  shell.  The  flesh  of  this 
animal,  Malaclemmys  palustris,  is  gelatinous  and  is 
always  stewed.  Its  almost  fabulous  price  has  led  to  its 
being  hunted  so  much  that  it  is  in  danger  of  being  ex- 
terminated. It  ranges  from  New  York  to  Texas,  but 
the  southern  specimens  are  not  in  high  esteem.  Ches- 
apeake Bay  furnishes  the  greatest  number,  and  Balti- 
moreans  not  only  think  them  the  best  but  also  believe 
that  they  cannot  be  properly  served  outside  that  city. 
Epicures  of  Philadelphia  and  New  York  have  the  same 
notion  regarding  their  own  cities. 

They  are  sold  by  the  dozen,  or  computed  at  that 
rate,  and  a  "count"  terrapin  is  a  female  that  measures 
6  inches  in  length  on  the  under  shell.  No  male  is  ever 
a  "count."  From  this  the  price  increases  greatly;  a 
female  of  8  inches,  which  is  about  the  extreme  size, 
being  rated  as  two  "counts,"  more  or  less  according 
to  the  market.  Twenty  years  ago  the  "counts"  were 
worth  only  the  trifling  sum  of  $20  to  $30  per  dozen, 
but  in  1888  they  increased  to  $75  to  $100  per  dozen. 
Suppose  that  a  dozen  would  weigh  40  Ibs.,  at  $100  they 
would  cost  $2.50  per  pound  live  weight,  the  most  ex- 
pensive morsel  known  in  modern  days.  No  wonder 
that  the  southern  yellow  and  red-bellied  "sliders"  come 


Miscellaneous.  30? 

to  northern  markets  and  turn  into  "terrapin."     Who 
wouldn't  ? 

The  terrapins  inhabit  the  salt  marshes,  and  lay  their 
eggs  in  the  sand,  as  all  turtles  do,  and  the  young  crawl 
out  and  go  to  the  water  to  feed.  Their  food  is  mainly 
fish  and  crabs.-  Their  threatened  extinction  has  led 
to  efforts  for  their  preservation.  It  is  evident  that  they 
must  be  allowed  to  lay  their  eggs  in  the  sand  and  have 
the  sun  hatch  them  in  the  good  old  way,  and  that  all 
that  can  be  done  is  to  protect  the  young  and  perhaps 
feed  them.  Senator  Stewart  of  Maryland,  had  a  ter- 
rapin enclosure.  The  Baltimore  American  said : 
"Messrs.  A.  B.  Riggin  &  Co.  have  added  another  dia- 
mond-backed terrapin  inclosure  on  the  Annamessex 
River,  adjoining  Crisfield,  says  the  Baltimore  Ameri- 
can. The.  inclosure  is  formed  by  driving  sixteen-foot 
boards  in  the  mud  to  the  depth  of  six  feet,  or  to  the 
hard  bottom,  making  a  secure  pen  for  the  terrapin. 
About  two  acres  of  muddy  bottom  are  fenced  in,  with 
knolls  exposed  here  and  there,  interspersed  with  salt 
water,  which  is  constantly  renewed  by  the  ebbing  and 
flowing  of  the  tide.  There  are  also  artificial  banks  of 
sand  in  which  the  terrapin  deposit  their  eggs,  leaving 
them  to  be  hatched  by  the  heat  of  the  sun.  Eggs  are 
usually  deposited  from  June  to  the  middle  of  August, 
and  soon  hatch  in  the  warm  summer  sun.  A  grown 
terrapin  will  lay  twelve  eggs  at  a  time,  and  lay  twice 
during  the  season.  Terrapin  require  about  three  years 
to  become  full  "counts." 

"During  the  winter  the  terrapin  plow  deeply  into  the 
mud  and  lie  dormant,  requiring  no  food  or  attention, 
only  warm  quarters.  When  they  wake  up  in  the 
spring  they  develop  a  vigorous  appetite,  and  are  fed 
principally  on  hard-shell  crabs,  which  they  devour  with 


308     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

great  greed.  After  a  few  days'  feeding  they  learn  to 
come  to  the  feeding  place  with  the  eagerness  of  chick- 
ens in  a  barnyard. 

"At  the  close  of  last  season  the  Messes.  Riggin  had 
3,600  young  terrapin  on  hand,  which  were  carried  safe- 
ly through  the  winter.  The  warm  days  of  early  spring 
caused  their  owners  to  remove  them  from  the  winter 
quarters  sooner  than  usual,  and  the  cold  wave  proved 
very  disastrous,  killing  about  six  hundred  of  them, 
which  means  a  loss,  at  the  present  valuation,  of  $1,200. 
In  purchasing  stock  terrapin  those  of  five  inches  cost 
$13  a  dozen ;  six  inches,  $34  a  dozen,  and  seven  to  nine 
inches,  $60  a  dozen.  They  sell  at  from  $60  to  $80  a 
dozen." 

There  is  not  room  here  to  record  all  such  experi- 
ments as  are  at  hand,  the  accumulation  of  years,  but 
the  above  quotation  tells  about  how  far  the  culture  of 
terrapin  has  gone.  If,  under  proper  conditions,  the 
young  can  be  confined,  fed  and  protected,  there  may  be 
a  future  for  terrapin  culture.  The  Messrs.  Riggin's 
board  enclosure  must  have  had  spaces  for  the  entrance 
of  water  and  food,  and  just  how  these  were  arranged 
to  prevent  the  exit  of  young  terrapins  is  not  explained. 
The  average  newspaper  reporter  can  tell  the  public  all 
about  the  culture  of  fish,  frogs,  terrapin  and  other 
things,  if  he  happens  to  think  of  it.  He  makes  a  note 
or  two  and  then  takes  the  hobbles  from  his  imagination 
and  lets  it  roam.  A  terrapin  is  a  better  climber  than 
an  oyster,  and  "sixteen-foot  boards  in  the  mud  to  the 
depth  of  six  feet"  would  secure  the  diamond-backs, 
if  the  water  did  not  rise  the  other  ten  feet,  a  point  on 
which  he  is  silent. 

I  believe  it  to  be  possible  to  breed  this  animal  profi- 
tably. The  enormous  and  ever  increasing  prices  that 


Miscellaneous.  3°9 

genuine  diamond  backs  are  bringing  will  pay  for  much 
food  and  attention.  Wealthy  men  are  paying  prices 
for  this  reptile  which  almost  equal  the  expenditure  of 
Lucullus  for  the  tongues  of  nightingales  when  he  mere- 
ly wished  to  show  his  extravagance,  for  it  may  be  ques- 
tioned if  the  tongue  of  that  bird  exceeds  any  other  in 
delicacy ;  or  if  the  tongue  of  any  bird  is  a  real  delicacy. 
On  these  points  few  of  us  can  speak  authoritatively. 
That  terrapin  culture  can  be  made  profitable  I  do  not 
doubt,  as  there  is  no  prospect  of  the  price  ever  drop- 
ping from  its  present  height. 


CHAPTER  XLII. 

NUMBER  OF  EGGS  IN  DIFFERENT  FISH. 

SUNFISH. — Once  I  computed  the  eggs  in  a  little  sun- 
fish.  The  extreme  length  of  the  fish,  including  the 
caudal  fin,  was  6^  inches,  and  its  weight  was  5^  ounces. 
The  fish  was  captured  on  June  16,  and  was  nearly 
ready  to  spawn;  the  weight  of  the  ovaries  was  i^ 
ounces.  The  eggs  measured  twenty-eight  to  the  inch, 
making  21,952  to  the  cubic  inch.  The  displacement 
of  the  ovaries  in  water  was  a  trifle  over  two  cubic 
inches,  and  the  number  was  estimated  in  round  num- 
bers to  be  44,000 — a  most  enormous  number  for  so 
small  a  fish. 

THE  EEL. — Of  eel  eggs  an  editorial  note  in  Forest 
and  Stream,  Dec.  19,  1878,  said :  "Happening  to  be  in 


310     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

Mr.  Blackford's  office  a  short  time  ago  when  a  six- 
pound  eel  with  spawn  was  brought  for  examination, 
Mr.  Mather  proposed  a  computation  of  the  eggs.  He 
took  the  ovary  home.  Under  the  microscope  the  eggs 
appear  to  be  of  an  octagonal  form,  but  this  is  due  whol- 
ly to  their  pressing  upon  one  another ;  when  separated 
they  assume  the  globular  form.  The  use  of  the  mi- 
crometer failed  to  give  satisfactory  results  because  the 
eggs  varied  greatly  in  size.  Mr.  Mather  therefore 
placed  a  number  in  line,  measured  and  counted  them, 
and  found  them  to  average  80  to  the  inch.  Then  he 
took  the  whole  mass  of  eggs,  halved,  quartered,  and 
further  divided,  seventeen  times  in  all,  until  the  section 
small  enough  to  count  represented  1-131,072  of  the 
total  number.  The  count  showed  68  eggs,  or  8,912,- 
896  in  the  whole.  A  second  computation  in  the  same 
way  showed  77  eggs  in  the  counted  mass,  or  10,092,544 
altogether.  And  to  make  the  computation  still  more 
certain,  a  third  count  was  made,  which  showed  71  eggs 
in  the  last  division,  or  9,306,112  in  the  whole  ovaries. 
From  these  results  Mr.  Mather  fixes  the  number  of 
eggs  in  this  particular  eel  at  fully  nine  millions.'' 

The  eel  goes  to  salt  water  to  breed,  and  while  we  do 
not  know  how  its  eggs  are  deposited,  we  know  that  it 
passes  through  a  larval  state,  the  very  young  having 
been  considered  to  be  a  distinct  animal  by  the  older 
naturalists. 


TABLE  OF  THE  NUMBER  OF  EGGS  IN  VARIOUS  FISHES. 

The  following  is  taken  from  the  "Manual  of  Fish- 
culture"  of  the  United  States  Fish  Commission,  omit- 
ting such  fishes  as  have  little  importance,  or  whose 


Miscellaneous.  311 

eggs  have  been  mentioned  in  other  parts  of  the  book, 
and  using  "free"  for  "non-adhesive." 


Naane  of  Fish. 

Character  of 
Eggs. 

Average 
Number 
per  Fish. 

Maximum  Egg 
Production. 

Number 
of  Eggs. 

Weight  of 
Fish. 

Atlanoic  Salmon  

Heavy,  free  
Heavy,  adhesive  .  . 
Heavy,  adhesive 

9,363 
3000  to  10000 

20,992 

22H  Ibs. 

Black  Basses 

Crapoies         

Frost-fish,  Coregunus. 
Grayling.             .... 

Heavy,  adhesive  .  . 
Heavy,  free...  . 

3000  to  4000 
41,000 

|    100,000 

J-     35,000 
40,000 

5.200 
546,000 

265,000 

14 

1H 

35 

Buoyant,  free  
Semi-  buoy  ant, 
slightly  adhesive 
Semi-buoyant, 

Muskellunge  

Whitefish  

*White  Perch. 

*  The  table  gives  the  egg3  of  this  fish  as  "  buoyant,  non-adhesive."  I 
hp*e  written  that  they  adhere  to  "  floating  sticks,  weeds,  etc.,"  and  this  is 
rurnt.— F.  M. 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 


THE  "WORKING/"'  OR  "BLOOMING"  OF  PONDS. 

Anglers  find  that  at  certain  times  in  summer  there  is 
a  condition  of  things  in  large  natural  ponds  which 
seems  to  deprive  the  fish  of  all  desire  to  take  food.  In 
Forest  and  Stream  of  Aug.  27,  1898,  several  corre- 
spondents referred  to  this,  and  I  will  condense  their  re- 
marks here,  as  they  show  the  different  phases  of  this 
little  understood  but  very  common  occurrence. 

Mr.  A.  L.  Jordan  leads  off  with  some  questions,  a 
statement  of  fact,  and  a  final  question.  He  says : 

"May  I  be  allowed  to  ask  through  your  columns  a 


312     Modern  Pishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  WaieY. 

few  questions  concerning  the  working  of  ponds,  and 
the  method  of  fishing  the  ponds  when  in  that  condi- 
tion? I  very  much  des4re  to  solve  the  problem  of  the 
whys  and  wherefores  of  a  pond's  working.  What  is 
the  cause  of  a  pond's  working?  What  good  does  it 
accomplish  ?  How  does  it  affect  the  habits  of  trout  or 
any  fish?  What  is  the  best  method  of  fishing  during 
the  pond's  working? 

"I  have  been  for  the  last  three  years  on  Lake  Twit- 
chell,  near  Big  Moose,  in  the  Adirondacks,  during  the 
latter  part  of  August  and  the  first  part  of  September. 
Last  year  the  condition  of  the  lake  was  exceedingly 
bad,  an  old  guide  saying  he  had  never  seen  any  lake  in 
such  a  condition.  What  I  term  the  workings  were  all 
over  the  bars  and  were  from  3  to  5  or  6  feet  tall,  grow- 
ing to  within  a  few  inches  of  the  top  of  the  water. 
They  were  of  a  substance  somewhat  yellowish  in  color, 
and  of  a  thick,  slimy  nature.  After  a  heavy  wind  the 
shores  would  be  covered  with  a  lot  of  black  stuff 
washed  ashore. 

''The  trout  in  this  water  were  slow  and  sluggish, 
and  not  particularly  anxious  to  please  the  fisherman 
with  a  rise  to  his  cast.  \Vhen  opened  they  had  no  visi- 
ble traces  of  the  food  they  were  feeding  upon,  and 
they  were  very  fat  and  in  a  good  condition.  It  was 
their  custom  to  break  water  at  sunset,  but  this  year 
they  would  even  forego  that  sport.  What  caused  this 
inactivity  ?" 

Mr.  L.  O.  Crane  also  wants  to  know  about  the 
"specks"  in  the  lakes  and  ponds  during  July  and  Aug- 
ust, when  the  fishing  is  poor,  and  adds:  "Some  say 
the  specks  are  caused  by  the  lakes  fermenting ;  others 
say  they  are  caused  by  a  plant  blooming  in  the  bottom 
of  the  lakes,  and  others  by  the  blow  from  trees  coming 


Miscellaneous.  313 

into  the  lake.     Please  set  us  all  right  on  this  point  that 
1  have  heard  discussed  so  long." 

Then  the  following  appears:  "I  find  in  Bulletin  U. 
S.  F.  C.,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  341,  a  paragraph  upon  the  'water 
bloom"  of  ponds,  from  which  I  quote: 

"  'Lower  forms  of  algae,  of  the  varieties  Nostocha- 
ceae,  Oscillariae  and  Chroococcaceae,  occasionally  pro- 
duce by  their  astonishingly  rapid,  growth  the  so-called 
'water  bloom'  (Wasserbluete),  and  transform  the  water 
into  a  blue-green  mass  resembling  oil.  Sometimes 
this  'water  bloom'  causes  the  death  of  all  the  fish  in  a 
pond ;  in  other  cases  only  certain  varieties  die,  and 
frequently  the  fish  are  not  at  all  affected  by  it.  So  far 
no  experiments  have  been  made  with  the  view  to  ascer- 
tain which  of  the  algae  forming  the  'water  bloom'  ex- 
ercise an  injurious' influence  on  fish.  It  is  therefore 
very  desirable  that  careful  observation  should  be  made 
in  this  respect.' 

"In  the  United  States  no  doubt  similar  effects  are 
produced  by  related  forms  of  algae.  It  is  usually  stat- 
ed that  the  seeds  of  certain  water  plants  float  at  the 
surface  of  ponds  and  make  the  water  cloudy  until  fer- 
tilization increases  their  specific  gravity,  when  they 
sink  to  the  bottom  and  continue  their  development." 

The  German  authority  quoted  is  Dr.  Berthold  Ben- 
ecke,  formerly  living  at  Konigsberg. 

This  last  writer  is  close  to  the  facts,  and  it  may  be 
that  in  some  cases,  unknown  to  me,  the  water  may  have 
resembled  oil.  But  now  comes  Judge  J.  S.  Van  Cleef, 
of  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  who  is  closer  yet,  and  hits  the 
bulls-eye  in  the  following  remarks  : 

"I  think  that  I  can  answer  quite  fully  your  question 
in  regard  to  what  you  call  the  'blooming'  of  ponds,  but 
which  is  more  commonly  called  'working  or  clouding.' 


3  14     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

This  condition  of  the  water  does  not  always  result 
from  the  same  cause,  but  I  am  satisfied  that  it  results 
from  one  single  cause  in  the  pure  water  lakes  of  the 
mountain  regions  of  the  Catskills.  In  the  Bay  of 
Qninte  the  blooming  of  the  water  evidently  comes  from 
the  spores  of  an  aquatic  weed  or  plant  which  abounds 
in  all  the  shallow  waters  of  that  bay.  So  far  as  I  have 
had  the  opportunity  for  observation  almost  every  lake, 
pond  or  water  abounds  in  aquatic  weeds  peculiar  to 
itself.  Where  the  water  is  not  over  about  4  feet  in 
depth  these  plants  abound  in  a  large  amount  of  insect 
life,  and  where  the  water  is  deeper  there  is,  as  a  rule, 
an  entire  absence  of  animal  life.  In  the  waters  of  the 
Catskills,  with  which  I  am  quite  familiar,  I  have  never 
known  of  a  single  case  where  these  weeds  or  plants 
throw  out  spores  of  any  kind  which  cloud  the  water. 
Mr.  Cornelius  Van  Brunt,  who  is  quite  an  eminent 
misroscopist,  and  I,  some  twenty  years  ago  or  more, 
took  particular  pains  to  find  out  what  caused  the  cloud- 
ing of  the  waters  in  two  of  the  lakes  of  the  Catskills, 
Balsam  Lake  and  Willewemoc  Lake,  and  in  both  cases 
we  found  that  this  clouding  was  caused  by  the  spores 
of  the  fresh-water  sponge,  which  abounded  in  both 


"The  waters  of  these  two  lakes,  like  most  of  the 
lakes  of  the  Catskills,  were  very  pure,  being  spring 
water,  and  on  the  bottom  of  the  lakes,  at  a  depth  of 
about  2  feet  or  2,\  feet,  this  fresh-water  sponge  existed 
in  considerable  abundance,  each  sponge  being  not  Over 
2  or  2-J  inches  in  length  by  I  or  2  inches  in  width,  and 
when  taken  in  the  hand  and  squeezed  there  seemed  to 
be  nothing  of  them.  The  clouding  of  the  lakes  was 
found  to  extend  down  from  6  to  12  inches,  and  to  be 
produced  by  millions  of  spores  thrown  out  by  the  fresh- 


Miscellaneous.  315 

water  sponge ;  and  as  I  understand  it,  they  are  thrown 
out  with  very  great  rapidity,  and  the  lakes  where  these 
sponges  exist  remain  clouded  until  there  comes  a  de- 
cided storm,  when  the  spores  are  precipitated  to  the 
bottom  of  the  lake,  and  the  water  becomes  perfectly 
clear  again  in  two  or  three  days. 

"In  my  testimony  in  regard  to  Forest  Lake,  near 
Hudson,  N.  Y.,  I  referred  to  the  fact  that  this  lake 
was  free  from  cloud,  and  that  from  a  personal  inspec- 
tion of  the  lake  I  had  failed  to  find  any  fresh-water 
sponges.  In  regard  to  this  examination  I  can  only  add 
that  the  examination  of  the  waters  of  these  lakes  was 
made  under  a  microscope  of  the  highest  magnifying 
power  suitable  for  such  a  purpose,  and  that  no  spores 
were  found  except  those  produced  by  the  fresh-water 
sponge." 

After  this  an  invitation  was  extended  to  me  to  say 
something  on  this  subject  by  a  friend,  who  wrote  :  "No 
doubt  you  saw  the  different  theories  about  the  working 
of  ponds  in  a  late  Forest  and  Stream.  What  do  you 
think  of  them?  Who  is  right?" 

My  answrer  was :  "All  are  right.  There  are  differ- 
ent causes  for  this  disturbance  of  the  water.  One 
year  the  mill-pond  at  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  Long  Is- 
land, bloomed  twice,  once  in  the  middle  of  July,  from 
Nostoc,  which  lasted  four  days,  when  the  water  cleared 
and  the  bass  and  perch  were  just  coming  to  their  ap- 
petites, when  early  in  August  it  bloomed  again  with  the 
fresh-water  sponge,  as  described  by  Mr.  Van  Cleef. 
During  the  last  bloom  many  sunfish  and  some  white 
perch  died,  and  the  bass  and  yellow  perch  seemed  to 
abstain  from  food,  certainly  from  baits  offered,  until 
September.  There  is  a  theory  that  the  pollen  from 
some  trees — ash,  I  believe,  is  one — cloud  the  water  at 


316     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

times  and  the  fish  then  refuse  all  baits.  I  know  noth- 
ing of  this. 

"Nostoc,  or  Nostochacex,  as  the  quotation  from  the 
Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Fish  Commission  has  it,  is  a  low 
form  of  vegetation  which  grows  in  fresh  water  and  on 
damp  ground.  It  is  jelly-like,  and  is  composed  of 
threads  which  consist  of  globular  cells,  between  a  dozen 
or  more  of  which  are  larger  cells,  and  these  are  thrown 
off  and  float  by  thousands  in  the  water.  On  land  I 
have  seen  masses  of  it  in  the  swamps  from  3  to  5  inches 
in  diameter,  covered  with  jelly,  and  so  like  the  egg- 
masses  of  Aniblysioma,  or  salamanders,  wJiich  are  often 
improperly  called  'lizards' — the  true  lizards  have  scales, 
and  do  not  live  in  water,  but  love  the  sun — that  one 
had  to  look  twice  to  tell  the  difference.  Nostoc  is  of  a 
bluish  or  greenish  color,  and  the  egg  bunches  referred 
to  are  whitish,  slightly  opaque.  There  are  many  spe- 
cies of  Nostoc,  but  all  have  the  characters  given  above. 

"The  fresh-water  sponges,  as  Mr.  Van  Cleef  says, 
throw  off  great  quantities  of  spores  and  cloud  the 
water.  These  sponges  also  have  many  species,  are 
very  tender  and  difficult  to  detach  from  wood  or  stone, 
for  preservation  entire,  because  they  are  so  tender. 
Being  animal,  their  decay  often  renders  the  water  in 
the  reservoirs  of  cities  very  foul  and  'fishy/  Then 
people  complain  of  the  fish  in  the  reservoirs,  but  live 
fish  do  not  pollute  water." 

In  Germany  this  condition  of  ponds  is  called  "was- 
ser-bluthe" ;  in  France,  "Fleurs  d'  Eau,"  and  in  Eng- 
land "Blooming,"  or  "Breaking,"  or  "Cruddling."  The 
London  Fishing  Gazette,  Mar.  n,  1899,  in  an  article  on 
this  is  quoted : 

"At  certain  times  in  each  year,  generally  in  autumn, 
the  Shropshire  mere?  become  turbid  with  these  green 


Miscellaneous.  317 

particles,  the  water  becomes  unfit  for  domestic  pur- 
poses, and  it  defies  the  power  of  filtration,  soon  clog- 
ging up  the  pores  of  filters.  Fish  become  sickly  in  it, 
and  in  some  instances  die,  and  in  others  are  easily 
caught. 

"A  Mr.  Southwell  relates  that  in  a  lake  of  about  five 
acres,  in  very  hot  weather  in  June,  the  lake  broke,  and 
there  shortly  appeared  on  the  surface  large  numbers  of 
eels,  which  attracted  the  attention  of  the  villagers,  who 
took  to  the  boats,  and  with  spears  and  other  implements 
many  were  captured,  quite  in  a  sickly  and  stupefied 
condition. 

"This  condition  of  things  continues  in  varying  peri- 
ods from  a  few  days  to  months.  After  a  time  the  water 
emits  a  very  putrid  odor  from  the  decomposition  of 
the  green  particles.  In  Copmere  last  year  the  turbidity 
commenced  about  the  middle  of  July,  and  it  was  not 
until  the  middle  of  October  that  it  subsided,  after  which 
the  mere  cleared  and  seemed  to  have  undergone  a  veri- 
table purification  by  the  process,  so  much  so  that  it 
conveys  the  impression  of  being  a  sanitation  of  Nature 
to  purify  the  silted  organic  deposits  which  almost  fill 
these  meres. 

"Copmere  was  about  fourteen  days  before  the  de- 
composition of  the  green  scum  set  in  ;  the  surface  of 
the  water  then  began  to  give  off  a  putrid  odor.  The 
prevelence  of  these  green  appearances  is  variable. 
They  disappear  and  reappear,  and  occur  in  greater 
quantities  in  various  parts  of  the  Shropshire  meres,  but 
in  Copmere  last  year  they  were  generally  diffused 
throughout.  *  *  *  Copmere  did  not  break  in 
1895,  it  remained  very  clear  all  summer  and  autumn; 
but  a  very  singular  fact  is  connected  with  this  excep- 
tion of  breaking,  in  that  a  great  quantity  of  fish  died 


318     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

that  year  of  a  fungus-growth  disease",  whereas  in  i8yo 
none  died,  notwithstanding  the  mere  broke  badly. 

"It  is  said  of  Blake  Meer,  one  of  the  meres  near 
Ellesmere,  that  this  phenomenon  does  not  occur,  and 
the  water  there  is  selected  for  drinking  purposes,  while 
the  other  meres  are  in  the  breakage  state.  *  *  * 
You  will  now  be  prepared  to  know  that  this  breaking 
of  the  meres  is  due  to  microscopic  algae,  of  which  va- 
rious species  cause  the  phenomenal  appearance.  Dr. 
Drummond  found  the  green  color  of  the  water  of  Lake 
Glaslough  in  Ireland  owing  to  vast  quantities  of  a  floc- 
culent  oscillating  algae.  In  Loch  Hainining  in  Selkirk- 
shire a  rich  purple  color  occurs  on  the  surface  owing  to 
the  presence,  according  to  Dr.  Greville,  of  an  alga  of 
the  genus  Lyngbya.  In  a  loch  near  Aberdeen  a  species 
of  Rivularia  caused  the  peculiar  appearance;  another 
species,  Anabccna  flos-aquae,  was  also  present." 

See  chapter  on  diseases. 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 

FISHWAYS. 

A  small  fishway,  or,  as  some  call  it,  a  "fish  ladder" 
is  often  needed  by  the  fishculturist  to  enable  fish  to 
surmount  a  dam.  If  possible  this  should  be  above  the 
dam,  its  upper  end  extending  into  the  pond,  or  many 
fish  will  pass  its  outlet  and  remain  at  the  dam  vainly 
trying  to  ascend.  Space  forbids  going  into  this  ques- 
tion in  extenso,  but  as  a  6-foot  dam,  having  a  fishway 


Miscellaneous. 


319 


with  a  rise  of  one  in  six,  which  is  quite  steep,  would 
have  the  way  extend  36  feet  down  stream  it  will  be 
seen  how  easily  fish  might  go  past  it,  and  that  is  a  mod- 
erately steep  gradient,  if  possible  make  it  one  in  ten. 
With  dams  alternately  projecting  from  each  side,  as 
shown,  the  force  of  the  water  is  broken  and  eddies  are 
formed  which  permit  the  fish  to  rush,  rest,  and  so  as- 
cend. There  are  more  complicated  forms  of  fishways, 
some  patented,  but  for  a  little  trout  stream  this  simple 
form  will  do. 

If  it  is  desirable  to  stop  all  kinds  of  fish  from  ascend- 


"1* 

I 

4 

FORMS  OF  FISHWAYS. 

ing,  a  trap  at  the  top  can  be  arranged  and  the  fish  as- 
sorted. Some  figures  of  different  devices  are  here 
given.  Those  who  wish  to  pursue  the  subject  further 
are  referred  to  the  Reports  of  the  U.  S.  and  State  Fish 
Commissions.  The  McDonald  fishway — as  he  patent- 
ed it  but  did  not  invent  it  the  name  is  legitimate — I 
believe  to  be  the  best  form  if  properly  built  and  pro- 
tected. It  is  too  complicated  for  small  ways  such  as 


320     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

private  ponds  require.  The  State  of  New  York  had 
one  on  the  Hudson,  at  Troy,  but  it  was  poorly  made, 
was  bolted  to  the  apron  of  the  dam,  a^d,  when  that 


S» 


FORMS  OF  FISH  WAYS. 


floated  up,  the  foot  of  the  fishway  was  in  the  air.     The 
figures  show  several  models  for  retarding  the  water. 


CHAPTER  XLV: 


FISHES   WHICH    GUARD  THEIR   YOUNG. 


A  correspondent  asks:  "Is  there  any  other  fish  be- 
sides the  dogfish  which  guards  its  young?"  He  refers 
to  the  fresh-water  dogfish,  Ainia  cak'a,  called  in  the 
West  and  South  lawyer,  bowfin,  John  A.  Grindle  and 


M  iscella  neo  us.  32 1 

Johnny  Grindle,  while  in  Vermont  it  is  the  "mudfish." 
Of  this  fish  Mr.  Charles  Hallock  says  in  his  Sports- 
man's Gazetteer:  ''While  the  parent  still  remains  with 
the  young,  if  the  family  become  suddenly  alarmed,  the 
capacious  mouth  of  the  old  fish  will  open,  and  in  rushes 
the  entire  host  of  little  ones ;  the  ugly  maw  is  at  once 
closed  and  off  she  rushes  to  a  place  of  security,  when 
the  little  captives  are  set  at  liberty.  If  others  are  con- 
versant with  the  above  facts,  I  shall  be  very  glad;  if 
not,  shall  feel  chagrined  for  not  making  them  known 
long  ago."  Mr,  Hallock's  book  was  printed  in  1877, 
and  I  do  not  remember  to  have  seen  this  matter  re- 
ferred to  since,  except  "that  his  remarks  are  quoted  in 
the  Fisheries  Industries  (1884),  Section  I.,  page  659. 

There  are  many  fresh-water  fishes  which  guard  their 
young,  and  it  is  my  belief,  based  on  the  capture  and 
dissection  of  many  individuals,  that  it  is  the  male  which 
does  the  guarding.  All  the  catfish  tribe  guard  their 
young  until  they  scatter,  swimming  below  the  little 
black  school  for  several  days.  Black  bass,  rock  bass, 
sticklebacks  and  all  the  sunfishes  guard  both  eggs  and 
young  until  the  brood  separates  in  search  of  food.  It 
is  possible  that  the  crappies  also  guard  their  young,  but 
I  do  not  know  their  habits  in  this  respect. 

There  is  a  beautiful  little  fish  in  India,  brought  here 
for  ornamental  purposes,  called  paradise  fish.  I  have 
bred  them  in  small  tanks ;  the  male  makes  a  floating 
nest  of  air  bubbles  among  the  weeds  and  coaxes  the 
female  to  deposit  her  eggs  therein,  but  after  she  has 
done  that  he  will  not  let  her  go  near  the  nest,  and  hunts 
her  to  the  furthest  corner,  sometimes  killing  her,  He 
fans  the  eggs,  and  when  the  young  hatch  and  wander 
from  the  nest  he  will  take  them  in  his  mouth  and  re- 
turn them.  Some  of  the  sticklebacks  make  elaborate 


322     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

nests  of  twigs  and  the  male  takes  entire  charge  of  the 
household. 

The  male  sea-horse,  Hippocampus,  has  a  pouch  like 
a  marsupial,  in  place  of  an  anal  fin,  in  which  the  female 
lays  her  eggs  and  he  cares  for  them  and  their  young. 
The  males  of  some  tropical  fishes  are  said  to  carry  and 
hatch  the  eggs  in  their  mouths. 


CHAPTER  XLVI. 

HOW  FISH  FIND  THEIR  OWN  RIVERS. 

On  this  subject  the  late  Professor  James  W.  Milner 
wrote  some  years  ago  in  Harper's  Magazine,  and  really 
nothing  more  is  known  about  it  to-day.  He  said  :  "The 
long  held  and  only  recently  rejected  theory  that  the 
shoals  of  fishes  moved  in  a  vast  mass  along  the  coast, 
sending  off  detachments  into  each  river  as  they  passed 
its  mouth,  is  to  be  attributed  to  John  Gilpin  and  some 
other  authors,  who  have  written  flowingly  on  the  sub- 
ject. The  recent  careful  investigations  of  naturalists 
indicate  that  the  anadromous  fishes,  those  entering  the 
rivers  and  bodies  of  fresh  water  from  the  sea,  do  not 
have  an  extended  range  in  the  ocean,  and  that  each 
river's  colony  remains,  after  returning,  in  the  deep 
waters  opposite  their  river.  The  motive  for  the  move- 
ment of  these  shoals  of  anadromous  fishes,  or  rather 
how  it  is  incited,  has  scarcely  been  explained.  The 
life  of  the  fishes  has  always  been  a  mystery.  It  is  not  a 
search  for  food,  as  they  do  not  eat  while  in  fresh  water ; 


Miscellaneous.  323 

the  opening  of  hundreds  of  stomachs  will  fail  to  find 
food  present.  It  is  an  easy  disposal  of  the  question  as 
to  how  each  colony  recognizes  its  native  river  to  say 
that  'it  is  instinctive/  So  it  is,  also,  when  the  butcher's 
horse  recognizes  the  familiar  gates ;  but  we  have  some 
evidence  as  to  what  senses  he  uses.  The  fishes,  prob- 
ably prompted  by  functional  disturbance  from  the 
tumid  ovaries  and  spermaries,  are  incited  to  movement. 
The  courses  of  the  sea,  unmarked  as  they  are,  are, 
within  each  colony's  limit,  their  habitual  pathways.  An 
unerring  capacity  in  the  fish  for  finding  its  own  river 
may  be  no  more  than  that  which  guides  the  hermit- 
crab  to  the  shell  of  the  natica.  The  latter  goes  to  hide 
iis  sensitive  body,  with  an  apparent  nervous  trepidation 
at  its  unprotected  condition.  The  former,  with  an  un- 
easiness of  body  from  the  functional  changes  it  is 
undergoing,  is  impelled  to  activity.  The  transmitted 
habit  of  ascending  the  stream  is,  as  it  were,  blended  and 
alloyed  with  the  substance  of  the  nerves,  and,  aroused 
by  its  condition,  carries  it,  without  conscious  purpose, 
into  the  river  of  its  progenitors  and  its  own.  The  im- 
pulses of  the  fish  are  only  in  a  slightly  more  compli- 
cated series  than  those  of  the  crab.  That  it  should  be 
the  instinct  for  a  specific  stream,  established  through 
inheritance  of  many  generations,  is  easier  to  under- 
stand than  that  it  is  a  sort  of  memory  of  the  place  of 
its  immature  life,  as  the  theory  of  fishculture  makes  it 
and  as  observation  seems  to  sustain.  In  the  waters  of 
the  Delaware,  where  there  were  no  salmon  originally, 
the  young  salmon  placed  in  Bushkill  Creek  returned 
after  five  years  and  were  taken,  not  only  in  the  Dela- 
ware River,  but  the  larger  number  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Bushkill  Creek.  It  is  not  essential  that  all  fishes 
should  have  this  impelling  influence,  whatever  it  may 


324     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

be,  as,  like  gregarious  mammals  and  birds,  they  flock 
together,  following  the  leadership  of  whichever  for  the 
time  takes  it.  The  idea  is  suggested  that  the  senses 
may  be  the  guiding  agent,  that  a  fish  goes  nosing  along 
the  coast,  or  tasting  the  streams,  until  it  recognizes  its 
own.  The  convexity  of  the  cornea  must  afford  the 
fishes  a  very  limited  range  of  vision.  The  supposed 
dullness  of  the  sense  of  smell  and  of  taste  in  fishes 
might  alone  dispose  of  the  suggestion  that  these  are  em- 
ployed. The  following  occurrence,  however,  would 
seem  to  decide  to  the  contrary :  The  Russian  River, 
emptying  into  the  Pacific,  north  of  San  Francisco,  had 
its  mouth  entirely  closed  by  the  waves  during  the 
storm.  The  colony  of  salmon  made  their  yearly  mi- 
gration from  the  deep  waters  toward  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  and  many  of  them  raced  through  the  surf  and 
landed  high  and  dry  on  the  sand  that  walled  them  out 
from  their  native  river.  The  migration  of  the  salmon 
into  some  of  the  Pacific  rivers  is  a  frenzied  advance 
over  shoals,  rapids  and  cascades,  far  into  thin  streams 
and  brooks,  where  they  arrive  battered  and  weary,  to 
accomplish  their  exhaustive  reproductive  labors  and 
drop  back,  the  sport  of  the  current,  dead  and  dying, 
toward  the  sea;" 


CHAPTER  XLVIL 


DYNAMITING  A  LAKE. 


Hodge  Lake,  on  the  head  waters  of  the  Willowemoc, 
Sullivan  Co.,  N.  Y.,  was  populated  with  eels,  pickerel, 


Miscellaneous.  325 

catfish,  perch  and  sunfish.  The  owner  wished  to  clear 
his  pond  of  all  these,  render  it  lifeless  and  then  restock 
it  with  trout,  for  the  waters  were  cool  enough  in  sum- 
mer! In  April,  1899,  200  holes,  fifty  feet  apart,  were 
cut  through  the  ice  and  dynamite  in  half-pound  sticks, 
twelve  to  each  hole,  were  lowered  to  within  four  feet  of 
the  bottom.  Each  lot  of  sticks  was  connected  by  wire 
to  electric  batteries,  so  arranged  that  there  would  be 
three  explosions  about  half  a  second  apart.  The  but- 
ton was  pressed  and  columns  of  ice  and  water,  from  10 
to  1 5  feet  in  diameter,  went  up  a  hundred  feet  or  more. 
The  concussion  shook  the  earth  about  the  shores  and 
the  lake  was  barren  of  fish,  insect  larvae  and  crusta- 
ceans. The  larvae  will  all  come  back,  but  the  owner 
will  have  to  see  to  the  vegetation  and  the  crustaceans. 
If  he  gets  his  plants  from  neighboring  lakes  of  the 
same  character  he  will  get  all  these  forms  entangled  in 
it  without  paying  further  attention  to  them. 


CHAPTER  XLVIII. 

TO  MEASURE  A  FLOW  OF  WATER. 

Often  a  correspondent  seeks  advice  about  trout 
ponds  and  to  a  question  regarding  the  highest  tempera- 
tures and  the  amount  of  water  flowing  in  the  driest 
time,  replies  that  he  is  ignorant  on  these  points.  The 
temperatures  he  can  get  with  more  or  less  accuracy, 
dependent  on  the  unreliability  of  cheap  and  untested 
thermometers ;  but  the  amount  of  flow  is  usually  a 


326     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

matter  of  wild  guessing.  An  expert  can  guess  with 
some  nearness  by  a  mental  estimate  of  how  long  it 
would  take  a  stream  to  fill  a  certain  tank,  but  this  is 
only  a  guess.  I  had  seen  tables  given  in  an  algebraic 
form,  which,  as  far  as  I  am  concerned,  might  as  well 
never  have  been  written,  for,  while  as  a  schoolboy  I 
was  forced  through  such  studies,  I  promptly  forgot 
them.  Anything  mathematical  was  too  heavy  for  a 
brain  not  fitted  to  bear  such  burdens.  Yet  I  must  tell 
in  this  book  how  to  do  the  trick  with  exactness,  and  the 
occasion  brought  the  man,  as  usual.  I  wrote  to  a 
friend,  Mr.  W.  B.  Osterhout,  of  Freeport,  N.  Y.,  one  of 
the  engineers  of  the  Brooklyn  Water  Works.  He 
writes : 

"CoL.  FRED  MATHER:  It  gives  me  great  pleasure 
to  comply  with  your  request  of  March  30.  The  for- 
mula of  which  you  speak  is  known  as  Francis'  formula 
and  is  for  measuring  the  discharge  of  water  over  a 
weir:  Q=3.33XLXH°  or  Q=3-33XLX  JH5:  Q= 

Cubic  feet  of  water  per  second;  L=Length  of  weir; 
H=Head  or  depth  of  overflow. 


"The  conditions  are:  The  inner  face  of  weir,  as  A  B 
(Fig.  2),  must  be  not  less  than  twice  the  depth  of  over- 
flow, as  A  M  measured  from  A  to  horizontal  portion  of 
water's  surface,  A  to  M,  and  not  to  curved  surfaces,  at 
C,  and  the  length  of  A  A  of  weir  (Fig.  i)  not  less 


Miscellaneous.  327 

than  three  times  the  head,  A  M.  The  formula  given  is 
for  a  weir  without  end  contractions,  as  Fig.  I ;  that  is, 
the  width  of  flume  leading  to  weir  must  be  the  same 
width  as  the  overflow  and  not  contracted,  as  in  Fig.  3. 
After  getting  Q,  or  cubic  feet  of  water  flowing  per 
second,  it  is  easily  reduced  to  gallons  flowing  per  min- 
ute, hour  or  day.  As  there  are  1,728  cubic  inches  in  a 
cubic  foot  and  231  cubic  inches  in  a  gallon,  a  cubic  foot 
of  water  contains  1,728  inches  divided  by  231  inches, 
or  7.4805194  gallons,  or  nearly  7^  gallons.  The  flow 
is  generally  calculated  for  the  number  of  gallons  per 
day  of  twenty-four  hours." 

There  must  be  other  mathematical  dunces,  and  so  I 
wrote  Air.  Osterhout  that  his  formula  was  no  doubt 
correct,  but  was  not  in  the  shape  to  be  "understanded 
by  the  people" ;  also  that  fishculturists  reckoned  the 
flow  per  hour,  and  that  if  he  would  kindly  translate  this 
formula  into  a  flow  per  hour  per  foot  width  of  dam  it 
would  just  hit  the  mark. 

Then  he  got  down  to  the  fishcultural  level  and  wrote : 

"CoL.  FRED  MATHER  :  Your  mathematical  difficulties 
are  appreciated  and  I  enclose  you  a  table,  showing  gal- 
lons per  hour  discharged  by  a  one-foot  weir  for  depths 
from  o  to  i  foot.  I  have  also  put  in  the  decimal  of  a 
foot  corresponding  to  each  half  inch.  For  any  weir 
other  than  one  foot  in  length  multiply  the  number  of 
gallons  opposite  any  head  by  length  of  weir. 

"Example. — How  many  gallons  per  hour  will  flow- 
over  a  4-foot  weir,  with  a  head  of  3^  inches?  14,128% 
4=56,512  gallons.  If  the  weir  is  4  feet  5  inches  long, 
the  14,128  for  a  head  of  3^  inches  must  be  multiplied  by 


328     Modern  Fishculture  in  Fresh  and  Salt  Water. 

4.4167,  the  decimal  .4167  being  equivalent  to  5  inches, 
which  is  shown  in  the  first  column." 

Now  that  my  engineering  friend  had  got  down  to 
the  water  level  of  the  fishculturist,  there  was  nothing  to 
do  but  to  give  his  latest  formula,  and  here  you  have  it 
in  his  own  words  : 


FRANCIS'  FORMULA: 

Discharge  in  cubic  feet  per  second  =  3.33  X  length  of  overfall  in  feet  X 
I/cube  of  head  in  feet. 

Discharge  in  gallons  per  hour  =  3.33  Xby  length  of  overfall  in  feet  X 
1 7cube  of  head  in  feet  X  7.4805  X3,600. 

7.4805  =  number  of  gallons  in  one  cubic  foot  of  water  or  very  nearly  iy$. 
number  of  seconds  per  hour. 


Discharge  in  gallons  per  hour  of  a  ireir  one  foot  long  without  end  con- 
tractions for  depth  from  0  to  one  foot. 


Head  in 
Feet, 

Head  in 
Inches. 

Gallons  per 
Hour. 

Head  in 
Feet. 

Head  in 
Inches. 

Gallons  per 
Hour. 

0.0417 

H 

764 

0.5417 

QX 

35,753 

0.0833 

1 

2,156 

0.5833 

7 

39,950 

0-1250 

1H 

3,963 

0.6250 

1% 

44.310 

0.1667 

2 

6,104 

0.6667 

8 

48,817 

0.2083 

2y, 

8,525 

0.7083 

8tf 

53,457 

0.2500 

3 

11,210 

0.7500 

9 

58,246 

0.2917 

*     8H 

14,128 

0.7917 

9K 

63,171 

0.3333 

4 

17,256 

0.8333 

10 

68,215 

0.3750 

4^ 

20,593 

0.8750 

104 

73,399 

0.4167 

5 

24,122 

0.9167 

11 

78,708 

0.4583 

5,li» 

27,823 

0.9583 

11« 

84,126 

0.5000 

6 

31,705 

1.0000 

12 

89,676 

ADDENDA. 

JANUARY  1,  19OO. 

GROWTH  OF  TROUT. 


We  are  always  learning,  and  in  1899,  after  what  I 
have  written,  I  went  to  the  northwestern  corner  of  Wis- 
consin, up  the  Brule  River,  to  take  charge  for  a  short 
time  of  a  large  trout  preserve  belonging  to  a  gentle- 
man living  in  St.  Louis.  Fishcultural  operations  had 
been  going  on  for  several  years  previous,  and  the  year- 
ling trout  were  only  2^  to  4  inches  long;  while  the 
two-year-olds  would  not  average  over  6  inches. 
They  had  been  well  fed,  but  the  water  was  cold  and 
they  had  not  the  appetites  of  the  trout  of  the  warmer 
waters  of  Long  Island. 

The  springs  were  43°  Fahr.,  and  the  pools  in  sum- 
mer never  rose  above  50°.  These  pools  were  made  at 
the  outlet  of  a  small  pond  of  some  4  acres  and  in  swift 
water.  If  I  should  remain  here,  as  I  shall  not,  I 
would  make  the  rearing  pools  where  there  are  no 
springs,  and  where  the  ice  makes  thickest  in  winter. 
This  would  give  warmer  water  in  summer  and  a  great- 
er consumption  of  food ;  consequently  a  greater  growth. 


33°  Addenda. 

The  water  in  hatching  troughs  there,  up  to  Jan.  I,  1900, 
has  varied  from  38°  to  36°  Fahr.,  more  often  at  the 
lower  figure. 


GRAYLING. 


Since  the  book  was  in  type  I  have  had  further  ex- 
perience with  the  grayling.  The  eggs  came  from  Mon- 
tana to  northern  Wisconsin  in  May,  1899,  m  verY  bad 
shape.  Of  the  few  hatched  a  very  small  number  lived 
to  take  food,  and  of  these  80  per  cent,  died  before  the 
close  of  the  year.  Mr.  S.  P.  Wires,  Superintendent  of 
the  U.  S.  F.  C.  Station  at  Duluth,  Minn.,  has  no  liking 
for  the  fish,  if  he  is  expected  to  feed  and  raise  it.  Mr. 
Frank  N.  Clark,  of  the  Michigan  stations,  is  of  the 
same  opinion.  They  find  the  eggs  hatch  well  enough, 
but  beef  liver  is  not  the  food  for  them,  and  the  best 
thing  to  do  is  to  turn  them  out  when  they  begin  to 
take  food,  and  this  is  my  more  mature  view  of  the  fish. 
My  first  experience  was  somehow  more  fortunate  than 
that  of  later  years.  All  agree  that  the  adult  fish  does 
not  mature  its  eggs  in  confinement. 


INDEX. 


"Acre  of  Water" 

Alewives  

American  Fish  Culturists 
Association  

Basses,  the  Black 

Bath  Hatchery 

Batrachians    

Beef  Lights  and  Maggots. 

Bell  and  Mather  Hatch- 
ing Cone. 

Birds  that  Destroy  Fish.. 

Black  Fish 

Bladderwort 

Blooming  of  Ponds 

Blue-Back  Trout 

Brook  Trout 

Brown  Trout 146, 

Bullhead  

Bullpouts 

Bull-Trout   

Carp    20, 

Cat  Fish 

Cats    

Chambers,  W.  Oldham.. 

Channel  Cat 

Chars  

Chase  Jar 

Chemicals  

Chester  Tidal  Hatcher. . . 

Chinese    Fishculture 

Chinook 

Cod   290, 

Cold  Spring  Harbor 

Crappies    

Cut-Throat  Trout 

Cyclops   

Dams  . 


PAGE 
.     16 
243 


9 

213 

44 

269 

130 

199 

276 
290 
278 

3" 
146 

140 
149 
239 
239 
146 
241 
239 
287 

76 
240 
146 
203 

24 
295 

U 
146 
292 

10 

221 
146 

133 

123 


PAGE 

Disease  255 

Dobson  281 

Dog  Salmon 146 

Dog  Fish 321 

Dolly  Varden  Trout 146 

Domestication  of  Fish.  .19,  20 

Dragon  Fly 280 

Drains   . . 121 

Dynamiting  a  Lake 324 

Egg  Impregnation 62 

Egg    Packing    for    Ship- 
ment       72 

Eggs,  Adhesive 207 

Eggs  in  Eels 309 

Eggs  in  Fish,  table  of.  ...  310 

Eggs  in  Sunfish 309 

Egg  Transportation 72 

Enemies 267 

Epidemics 260 

Feeders,  Automatic 104 

Filters    56 

Fingerlings 138 

Fish,  Barren 204 

Fish  as  Food  for  Fish. . .  131 
Fishculture  Antiquity....  13 
Fish  Return  to  Rivers. . .  322 

Fishways 318 

Fish  which  Guard  Their 

Young  320 

Floors   44 

Flounder 290 

Flow    Measurement 325 

Foods  for  Fry 92,  106 

Foods  for  Trout  Pond. . .    136 

Frog  Culture 301 

Frogs  269 

Frost  Fish.  .  .  208 


331 


332 


Index. 


PAGE 

Fry,  care  of 86 

Fry  Feeding 92 

Fry  Growth 103,  329 

Fry  vs.  Fingerlings 138 

Fry  Planting 138 

Gammarus 132 

Gravel   81 

Grayling 175,  330 

Golden  Trout 146 

Green's  Box 196 

Hatching  Drains 50 

Hatching  House 40 

Hatching  Preparations. .  .     52 

Haddock 290 

Haslets 132 

Helgramite  281 

Hellbenders   270 

Horned   Pouts 239 

Horse  Meat 130 

Hoxsie's  Automatic 

Feeder  96 

Hybrid   Fish 169 

Inbreeding   102 

Insects 279 

Japanese    Feeding    Meth- 
ods      134 

Johnnie  Grindle 321 

Kingfisher 276 

Lake  Trout 146,  166 

Lobster    296 

Maitland     Feeding     Sys- 
tem      98 

McDonald  Jar 204 

Miller's  Thumb 268 

Mink   286 

Mud  Fish 321 

Muscalonge   191 

Muskrats 284 

Mussels  129 

Osprey  277 

Otter 286 

Ouananiche 148 

Pacific  Salmon 147 

Parasites  250 

Pickerel  191 

Pike   191 

Pike  Perch 230 

Page,  W.  F 218 

Ponds  105,  112 


PAGE 

Porgy 290 

Quinnet  Salmon 146 

Raccoon 287 

Rainbow  Trout 146,  156 

Red  Fish 146 

Refrigerator     Boxes     for 

Salmon  Eggs 75 

Reptiles  269 

Russian  Method  of  Tak- 
ing Eggs 64 

Salmon 90,  146,  147 

Salmonidae   146 

Salmon  in  the  Connecti- 
cut    15 

"Salmon  Trout" 30 

Salmo  Salar 146 

Salt  Water  Fish 290 

Sand    Pike 232 

Sawdust 24 

Sawyer 232 

Screens  for  Ponds 123 

Sea  Bass 290 

Sea  Herring 290 

Sebago  Salmon 146 

Sewage   28 

Sex  of  Trout 

Shad 

Shad  and  Striped  Bass..  .  170 
Shad  Fry  Across  the  At- 
lantic     198 

Shad  Hatching. 10 

Shad  in  the  Hudson 14 

Sheepshead 290 

Silver  Salmon 146 

Smelt  210 

Snakes 269 

Sockeye 146 

Soft  Clams.. 129 

Spanish   Mackerel 290 

Spawners,  Annual 173 

Spawn  from  Wild  Trout.  66 

Spawning  Funnel 

Squeteague  

Steelhead 146 

Streams    107 

Striped  Bass 204 

Stripping  a  Trout. 62 

Sturgeon   245 

Sunapee  Trout 146 


56 
192 


63 
290 


1 620  T 


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